Norfolk & Norwich Festival 2018 announces first nine acts

The Norfolk & Norwich Festival has unveiled its first nine shows for 2018, including three world premieres.

The programme is new festival director Daniel Brine's first, and will run from 11 to 27 May 2018.

Barely Methodical Troupe will present their new circus show Shift in the Adnams Spiegeltent from 16 to 27 May. This new 'gravity-defying' piece follows on from their previous two shows, Bromance and Kin, which have both received critical praise over the last two years.

From 14 to 19 May, theatre company Improbable will present new production The Paper Man at the Norwich Puppet Theatre. Set in 1938, the play is based on the life of Austrian football star Matthias Sindelar, ostracised by the Nazi party by refusing to throw a match. A few months later he was murdered.

Performance artists And Now, composed of Ben Rigby and Mandy Dike, will present a new piece entitled Wayfaring. Set on Wells Beach, the show invites audience members to help craft an installation throughout the festival, which will be turned into the venue for a final celebration at the programme's close.

Hofesh Shechter Dance Company will present new work Grand Finale on 15 May, while Stopgap Dance Company will mount a free work entitled The Seafarers on the Yarmouth Seafront, with a cast of 50 dancers performing the collaboration alongside folk band Moulettes.

The season sees live performances from Ben Folds, Thomas Adès and Britten Sinfonia, the London Philharmonic Orchestra and Ladysmith Black Mambazo across the fortnight.

Brine said: "We are hugely excited to be able to announce some of the first shows for the 2018 Festival. The programme showcases a fantastic mix of international artists, exciting UK companies as well as local artists, residents and indeed our landscape too."

Further artists in the lineup will be announced in February.