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Norwegian Highlights Culture Newsletter

Dates for your diary: our round-up of what to look out for including art, music, theatre, literature and more.

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Every second Saturday morning, the Embassy sends a cultural newsletter. From live music and theatre to film releases, art exhibitions and more, this is your guide to Norwegian culture in the UK over the coming weeks.

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Dates for your Diary: Norwegian culture listings in the UK

Happening now

Edvard Munch Portraits at the National Portrait Gallery is the first exhibition in the UK to focus on this important, but sometimes overlooked, aspect of Munch's work. The exhibition shows how Munch painted portraits as commissions and for personal reasons, with many pictures doubling up as icons or examples of the human condition despite being based on the direct observation of named individuals. Until 15 June.

Iconic portraits from the pages of trailblazing magazine The Face are celebrated in a major exhibition, as fashion, music and pop-culture take center stage at the National Portrait Gallery, featuring images from celebrated photographer Sølve Sundsbø. Until 18 May.

Oliver Lovrenski's debut novel Back in the Day is released in English by Penguin imprint Hamish Hamilton, translated by Nichola Smalley. A sensation in Norway upon publication, Lovrenski gives voice to young men growing up in a brutal and chaotic world, shot through with rare empathy, irrepressible wit and gut-punch pathos.

A contemporary reimagining of Henrik Ibsen’s classic, Ghosts, directed by Artistic Director Rachel O’Riordan, is at the Lyric Hammersmith Theatre until 10 May.

 

▶ 3 - 4 May, Glasgow

Music from Norway is on the lineup at Tectonics Festival, with Øyvind Torvund's symphony being performed by Kjetil MøsterJørgen TræenJennifer Torrence and the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, as well as separate concerts where the artists will be performing during the festival.

▶ 3 May, London

AURORA is playing the OVO Arena Wembley.

▶ 3 May, London

Nils Petter Molvær is playing two shows at Ronnie Scott's together with Jo Berger Myhre and Erland Dahlen.

▶ 8-17 May, London

Jon Fosse's Einkvan (Everyman) comes to Coronet Theatre in Notting Hill - a guest play from Det Norske Teatret, directed by Kjersti HornEinkvan is a beautiful hybrid of contemporary art and theatre, interlocking the intimacy of film with the immediacy of live theatre.

▶ 8-11 May, Various

Pom Poko are playing dates in Bristol, Oxford, Wrexham and Bedford.

▶ 8 May, London

Inspired by his summer trips to Norway and lifelong friendship with Grieg, Delius' The Song of the High Hills is on the programme as the Bach Choir perform with the Philharmonia Orchestra at the Royal Festival Hall.

▶ 9 May, London

Norwegian DJ, producer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Ora the Molecule is playing The Grace in Islington.

▶ 15 May, London

'Girl, 1983' by prolific writer Linn Ullmann will be published by Penguin's Hamish Hamilton imprint. Set in Oslo, New York and Paris, Girl, 1983 is a raw and haunting exposure of beauty and forgetting, desire and shame, power and powerlessness.

▶ 16 - 18 May, London

Årabrot and The Devil & The Almighty Blues are among the bands on the lineup for Desertfest London.

▶ 17 May

Join Norwegians and friends of Norway in celebrating Syttende Mai - Norway's National Day - at celebrations in London, Edinburgh, Cardiff and other cities around the UK and internationally.

▶ 17 May - 10 August, Bristol

Kari Steihaug and Lise B. Linnert are among the artists included in the exhibition Soft Power: Lives told through textile art at the RWA in Bristol.

▶ 21 May, London

Jenny Hval is playing the Islington Assembly Hall, with music from her new album Iris Silver Mist.

▶ 21 May, London

Pianist Leif Ove Andsnes is performing with Bertrand Chamayou at Wigmore Hall. György Kurtág’s lifelong love for the music of Schubert forms the backdrop to this delectable collaboration between Leif Ove Andsnes and Bertrand Chamayou, two performers who share a fascination for the infinite tonal gradations and inflections that can be coaxed from the piano.

▶ 23 & 24 May, Galloway

Torgeir Vassvik is performing at Knockengorroch Festival in Galloway. Blending vocal and percussion rituals with modern strings, his sound is deeply rooted in folk, classical, and improvisation, bridging tradition with bold experimentation.