Expect world premieres, thrilling circus, dramatic dance and much more when Norfolk and Norwich Festival returns from May 10-26
L’HOMME DEBOUT
Mo and the Red Ribbon
Friday May 10, 9pm
Norwich City Centre
Free
A giant puppet will parade through the streets of Norwich as French company L’Homme Debout bring their playful and poetic story of Mo and The Red Ribbon as part of the opening Welcome Weekend on the city’s streets. The piece explores the experience of migration from a child’s perspective, offering an ultimately optimistic look at the world we inhabit and those we share it with.
STEVE WATERS
Phoenix Dodo Butterfly
Saturday May 11, 7.30pm, UEA Drama Studio
Saturday May 25, 7.30pm, The Drill House, Great Yarmouth
Tickets £20 (Norwich), £16 (Great Yarmouth) | U18/YoungNNF £7.50
What future do we want to live in? On a Norfolk farm, Martin and Becky seek to find their way through three futures: one of flood, one of fire, and one of drought. Does their estranged daughter Aimee hold the secret to survival? The show will be followed by a panel discussion on the climate crisis, including speakers acclaimed nature writer Patrick Barkham (UEA) and BBC Countryfile's Tom Heap (Drill House).
The performance on Saturday 11 May will be BSL interpreted.
MAGDALENE ODUNDO
Sunday May 12 - Sunday September 29
Houghton Hall
For ticket information see houghtonhall.com
One of the world’s most revered ceramic artists, Dame Magdalene Odundo, presents an exhibition of sculptures made and sited in response to the state rooms at Houghton Hall.
CIRCOLOMBIA
Corazón
Wednesday May 15 - Sunday May 26, 7.30pm (Sundays 5.30pm)
Adnams Spiegeltent
Weekdays £25, £22, Fri-Sat-Sun £27, £24, U18/YoungNNF £7.50
A brand new show all the way from South America and created especially for the Adnams Spiegeltent. Circolombia invites the audience into their home to experience Corazón (Heart). This world premiere, commissioned by Norfolk & Norwich Festival, is a fun-fuelled circus concert, packed with breathless circus feats and infectious music where you, the audience, are warmly invited right into the beating Latin heart.
NORFOLK FOLKLORE SOCIETY & LAURA CANNELL
Dark Tales from the Guildhall
Wednesday 15 May, 7pm
Norwich Guildhall
Tickets £10, U18/YoungNNF £7.50
In a wonderfully atmospheric setting, the Norfolk Folklore Society and performer Laura Cannell will join to create a magical night filled with tales of ghosts, witchcraft, secret tunnels and dreadful murders linked to Norwich’s Guildhall, a distinctive building which has been at the heart of the Fine City for centuries. Ages 16-plus.
268 YEARS OF REVERB
Composed by Jonny Greenwood, performed by James McVinnie and Eliza McCarthy
Saturday May 18, 2pm
Octagon Chapel
Full eight hours £50 (on the day £60), 1 hour 50 minute time slots £20 (on the day £25), U18/YoungNNF £7.50 (available for 1 hour 50 minutes only)
268 years of reverb was written by Radiohead's Jonny Greenwood to summon all the music, voices and sounds that have ever filled the air and soaked into the walls of a room: to shake or coax them out of the fabric of the building, so they can be heard again - distilled and concentrated into eight hours.
KING CREOSOTE
Saturday May 18, 8pm
Norwich Cathedral
Tickets £27, £25, £17, £10, U18/YoungNNF £7.50
Kenny Anderson (AKA King Creosote) has developed a reputation for his goosebump-inducing brand of folk-pop. Lyrics both ethereal and everyday are plotted against kaleidoscopic musical terrain that explores everything from accordions to vibraphones.
NORWICH THEATRE PRESENT MARC BREW & SIDI LARBI CHERKAOUI
an Accident / a Life
Friday May 24 & Saturday May 25, 7.30pm
Norwich Theatre Royal
Tickets £35, £32, £28, £24, £10
In this exciting new collaboration, Marc Brew and Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui attempt to find new forms of movement and question socially standardised images of people with disabilities. They explore profound events and fraught memories using dance, storytelling, film and a car. Ages 14-plus
LUKE WRIGHT’S SILVER JUBILEE
Friday May 24, 5pm
Adnams Spiegeltent
Tickets £16, U18/Young NNF £7.50
East Anglian spoken word star Luke Wright tries to celebrate 25 years of service on the literary frontline but ends up taking a deep dive into himself and the England that raised him. The show will feature glittering showpieces alongside tender tear-jerkers on class, excessive consumption, love and adoption.
This performance will be BSL interpreted.
