Life and Times (photo: Reinhard Werner)
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The 2013 Norfolk & Norwich Festival announces its main attractions

Some highlights of the 2013 Norfolk and Norwich Festival, which runs between 10 and 26 May, have now been unveiled by artistic director William Galinsky (the full programme will be published early in March). Galinsky emphasises that: "The six shows we are announcing now merely touch on the range and the depth of this festival which I hope will be a treat for Norfolk audiences as well as attracting visitors to the county.

"I am especially proud to be welcoming Nature Theater of Oklahoma to perform for the first time in the UK and with a world première. How Like An Angel is returning to satisfy continuing demand for this extraordinary piece. We are also celebrating Britten's centenary with a performance of Our Hunting Fathers, and I'm excited by all the different genres of music which we have – Soul Rebels from New Orleans, Mariza from Portugal and the ultra-cool French Woodkid. We're also collaborating with the University of East Anglia (UEA) to bring the National Theatre of Scotland's Black Watch in April, just before the festival begins".

The Nature Theater of Oklahoma is based in New York. Life and Times is the portrait of an unremarkable life which was generated by asking a friend "can you tell me your life story?". This resulted in a 16-hour telephone conversation which was recorded and is used verbatim as the text.

This Norwich production is of a new segment, commissioned specially for the festival. You can experience what has apparently been described as "the greatest story never told" either in a 12-hour marathon (but that does include a barbeque cooked for you by the cast) or over four separate evenings at the Norwich Playhouse between 21 and 25 May

The Australian contemporary circus company Circa was commissioned to create How Like An Angel for the London 2012 Festival and then performed in Norwich as well as other medieval cathedrals The six performers are joined by the nine singers of I Fagiolini in Norwich Cathedral from 14 to 17 May.

Our Hunting Fathers was a Norfolk and Norwich Festival commission in 1936 and will be performed in the original venue of St Andrew's Hall on 13 May. Soul Rebels (12 May) mix traditional jazz with up-to-the-minute vocals, Mariza (14 May) is renowned as an exponent of contemporary fado and Woodkid (13 May) is one of those cult "names to drop" in France; all perform at the Theatre Royal.

- by Anne Morley-Priestman

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