The BBC Proms season is well underway and there’s still time to experience the world’s greatest classical music festival. Some of Norway’s leading musicians have been performing at the Royal Albert Hall in recent weeks as part of this year’s Proms. Still to come:

Sunday 31 August: Singing in the Ume Sámi language, Katarina Barruk is performing with Pekka Kuusisto and the Norwegian Chamber Orchestra

📰 Read Katarina Barruk and Pekka Kuusisto's interview with Tom Service in the Guardian here.

A popular tradition during the season, ‘promming’ tickets standing in the Royal Albert Hall’s Arena or Gallery are available online on the day for only £8.

If you can’t make it to the performance, all Proms are broadcast live on BBC Radio 3 and available to listen afterwards on BBC Sounds:

🎵 Soprano Mari Eriksmoen joined with the Hallé Orchestra and Choirs for Gustav Mahler’s ‘Resurrection’ Symphony. Listen on BBC Sounds.
🎵 Creating a tavern-like mood with their Nordic Alehouse Session, Bjarte Eike & Barokksolistene were part of the all-night ‘From Dark Til Dawn’ Prom, with guest curator Anna Lapwood. Listen on BBC Sounds.

Above: Pekka Kuusisto and Katarina Barruk with the Norwegian Chamber Orchestra (photo: Euishin Kim).

London, 10 Sep - 8 Nov: New life is breathed into Henrik Ibsen’s classic play, The Lady from the Sea, in an exciting new adaptation by Simon Stone at the Bridge Theatre. 

The Lady from the Sea is a thrilling dissection of desire, loss and rebirth for the contemporary age. Fearful she may have settled too easily for a comfortable life married to a well-off doctor, Ellida searches for a way to break the predictable routine her existence has become. When a lover from her past appears at their remote country house, she has to choose between the life she has now built and the one she left behind long ago.

Oscar-winning star Alicia Vikander (The Danish Girl, Ex Machina) makes her theatre debut, and is joined by Andrew Lincoln (Love Actually, The Walking Dead). The cast also includes Joe Alwyn, Gracie Oddie-James, Brendan Cowell, Isobel Akuwudike, and John Macmillan.

Vikander said, “Ibsen was one of the first playwrights I was introduced to, and his plays have always spoken to me on a deeply personal level, so it felt right that The Lady from the Sea should be my theatre debut.”

Photo by Johan Persson

The trilogy of films ‘Sex’, ‘Dreams’ and ‘Love’ explore the fluidity of romance, intimacy and desire in modern life with humour, sensitivity and wit.

Known together as the Oslo Series Trilogy, the films have common themes but each has its own self-contained narrative and characters. The films are the latest from one of Norway’s most influential writers and filmmakers, Dag Johan Haugerud.

The Oslo Stories Trilogy are on release this month in UK cinemas. Find screenings near you on the website of distributors Modern Films.

London, until 30 August: The multi-award winning UK/Norway based physical theatre company, Akimbo Theatre, brings their new play The Animator to Southwark Playhouse in London.

Step into the captivating world of Lotte Reiniger, the visionary who created the very first feature-length animation film, The Adventures of Prince Achmed, a decade before Walt Disney’s ‘Snow White’.

The Animator brings to life this intrepid inventor and her eccentric team, as they build the first animation tables, seduce investors, fall in love and fight for their art form. Within this flickering world of shadows and light, Akimbo Theatre presents a high energy physical theatre biopic with dark political themes, holding an unsettling mirror to events today.

Photography by Luisa De La Concha Montes

London, 31 August & 1 September: Victoria Ulriksen gave her debut recital at age 15 in Oslo Cathedral, and abroad in 2023 on Scandinavia’s only Cavaillé-Coll organ in Copenhagen. Her tour in England last year consisted of concerts in Blackburn Cathedral and Truro Cathedral among others, and this year’s tours consist of over 15 cathedrals such as Norwich, Chester, Southwark, as well as Westminster Abbey.

Ulriksen is playing an organ recital at Westminster Abbey on Sunday 31 August, with a programme including music by Grieg, Mozart, Saint-Saëns and Widor.

On 1 September she will play music by J.S. Bach, Couperin, Handel and others on harpsichord and organ at Handel Hendrix House , together with harpist Aisha Palmer.

Photograph by Levent Ultanur.

Are you an emerging translator of Norwegian literature? Apply for the National Centre for Writing's Emerging Translator Mentorships 2025–26. NB: Deadline is 31 August.

Mentees receive six months of personal mentoring with a mentor in their language or field, as well as a stipend and invitations to industry events for their professional and creative development. Your mentor working with the Norwegian language is Rosie Hedger. The mentorships are open to translators based anywhere in the world. 

London, 29 Sep - 21 Oct: Born in 1937 in Svolvær, Norway, Britt Boutros-Ghali's early experiences in the Arctic landscape—marked by dramatic light shifts, harsh weather, and the shadow of World War II— were a formative influence on her visual language.

Ghali’s work is held in many public and private collections, including MOMA, Egypt and the Queen Noor Museum of Modern Art, Aman, Jourdan. Since her first exhibition in Paris in 1962, Ghali’s work has been presented at numerous exhibitions worldwide. The Varvara Roza Galleries exhibition focuses on her recent paintings. 

The exhibition presented by Varvara Roza Galleries will be on view at 8 Duke Street, St James's, London SW1Y 6BN.

Photo by Ayman Lofty 

Happening now

Mathilde Friis is one of the co-curators of Virtual Beauty at Somerset House. The exhibition is a thought-provoking exhibition exploring the impact of digital culture and technologies on the traditional definitions of beauty today. Until 28 September.

Born in Stavanger in 1988, Linda Lamignan is one of the artists showing at this year's Liverpool Biennial. Through video, sound and objects, Lamignan explores notions related to storytelling and translation, transformation and love. Until 14 September.

The multi-award winning UK/Norway based physical theatre company, Akimbo Theatre, are bringing their new play the Animator to Southwark Playhouse in London. Until 30 August.

▶ 12 September, Stirling

At this year's Bloody Scotland Crime Writing Festival, renowned authors Thomas Enger and Jo Nesbø are speaking in separate sessions.

▶ 17-20 September, London

Norwegian designers are participating in Material Matters at Space House, Covent Garden, during this year's London Design Festival.

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