A new festival celebrating Nordic theatre is coming to East London this month.

The New Nordics Festival takes place over four days at East London’s Yard Theatre from Wednesday, March 18, to Saturday, March 21.

Working with a mixture of upcoming and high profile theatre writers in the Nordic region (including Lisa Langseth who currently writes and directs for Netflix, and Vivian Nielsen who has received a Reumert Prize for her work), the festival hopes to display the collaborative work between Nordic and UK-based creatives - with the aim of showcasing the strengths of Nordic writing. Nordic values and themes include notably gender equality, environmental awareness, social engagement and other socially and politically progressive ways of thinking.

Through a rigorous selection process, six playwrights from six different Nordic countries - Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Iceland and the Faroe Islands - have been selected to bring their work to the festival and have been paired with six UK-based directors to further support the inter-country relationship. The directors will also travel to their paired country to meet the writer, other directors, artistic directors and producers, and to explore what Nordic theatre and culture is, before returning to the UK for the festival.

Festival director Camilla Gürtler said: “It takes a lot to start a new festival, especially one that moves across borders, but we’ve had great support from Nordic embassies and other partners. The festival was born out of a wish to bridge the gap between theatre cultures in different countries, between the UK and the Nordic region, showcasing the best each has to offer. The festival is about skills-exchange and growing an international network and link between UK and Nordic artists with the hope that these relationships will continue to flourish in years to come, and we’re so excited to welcome our Nordic writers to London this March.”