The 2013 Norfolk & Norwich Festival announces its main attractions

“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.