OffScript

In part 2 we’re looking at the impact of politics on the most recent productions from Dash Arts. We explore our 2025 production of The Reckoning, which brought real-life testimonies from Ukraine to the stage, and the upcoming 2026 production of Our Public House, inspired by speeches from people across England.  Marina Pesenti, former Director of the Ukrainian Institute, looks back at how more...

In this special two-part series, we're celebrating Dash Arts' 20th birthday by looking back at how politics has impacted our work over the past two decades. In episode one, join Josephine Burton as she explores how artists and creative activists respond to the urgency of our times. Hear from storyteller Sophie Austin on our production of One Thousand and One Nights , which challenged preconceived...

From working with rappers in Beiruti basements to gathering musicians from all the conservatoires of ex-Soviet Republics in the mountains of Georgia and wild late nights in a tent with the Dash Arts Dacha, this episode celebrates the music and sounds woven through the last 20 years of Dash Arts. Josephine Burton acts as a guide across Dash Arts’ many musical projects, sharing stories and music fro...

After 32 performances, more than 1,700 bowls of salad and a clutch of four and five star reviews; our 5 week opening run of The Reckoning has drawn to a close.  In this episode we wanted to share with you some of the incredible voices and stories who joined us at Arcola in Dalston in calling for justice for Ukraine. Written by Anastasiia Kosodii and Josephine Burton, and directed by Burton, T...

This month Dash’s brand new production, The Reckoning , opens at The Arcola Theatre in Dalston. Co-Writer and Director Josephine Burton gives you a taste of what to expect from this vivid and powerful new play about war, survival and the fragile trust between those who uncover the truth and those who must live with it. Book your tickets for The Reckoning on the Arcola Theatre’s website . Based on...

What is the role of the artist when faced with social and political unrest?  This month as protests take place across the world, we’ve been thinking of the long history between art and protest. Every day this month Georgians, Turks, Americans and Serbians are on the streets speaking out against the country’s ruling governments. At Dash Arts we make art that challenges the world we all live in...

Join us round the kitchen table with acclaimed Ukrainian chef Olia Hercules and Dash’s Artistic Director Josephine Burton as they weave together cooking and storytelling in our latest production. Dash’s new production, The Reckoning, is a vivid and powerful new play about war, survival and the fragile trust between those who uncover the truth and those who must live with it. Co-writers Anastasiia...

What does it mean to be at loggerheads with reality? "If a person who is at loggerheads with reality possesses an artistic gift... he can transform his phantasies into artistic creations instead of symptoms." — Sigmund Freud, Five Lectures on Psycho-Analysis (1910) In this episode of the Dash Arts Podcast , Artistic Director Josephine Burton dives into two powerful exhibitions that challenge how w...

Join us in the rehearsal room as we craft a new epic - an origin story that celebrates and redefines the migration experience.  Songs of Solidarity (the current working title for Dash Arts and Projekt Europa’s new project ) brings together artists, researchers, and refugees to co-create a powerful music-theatre performance. In this episode we look at what makes epics, epic. We explore ancient...

How can the arts help us to encounter others? In December 2024, we were part of a fantastic live discussion at the RSA (Royal Society for Arts, Manufactures and Commerce) discussing how the arts can unlock unheard voices. This podcast brings you some highlights from the event with some extra insights and updates from our Dash Arts Artistic Director Josephine Burton. Hosted by Tom Stratton (Chief o...

“All good art is an attempt to wrestle with truth” In the fourth episode on the journey towards our production, The Reckoning , Dash’s Artistic Director, Josephine Burton is in conversation with Author and Playwright Gillian Slovo discussing the power of theatre and the responsibilities involved in bringing real people’s stories to the stage. As Dash Arts prepares to produce a theatre production r...

In the third episode on the journey towards our production, The Reckoning , Dash’s Artistic Director, Josephine Burton is in conversation with Rory Finnin, Professor of Ukrainian Studies at the University of Cambridge. Interspersed by some short performances from the developing script, the two discuss the creative process behind the making of the production, rooted in testimonies taken from surviv...

More than half the world's population is voting in elections this year. Dash Arts dives into one of those elections, speaking to artists in Georgia about how they are responding to the political turmoil in their country. The ruling party, Georgian Dream, is fighting for an unprecedented fourth term at the end of October 2024 and continues to be accused of silencing free speech, taking control of a...

“I’ve long nurtured a dream to get out and finally explore what it was about the forests and seas of Laulasmaa, ‘the land of song ’, in Estonia that inspired Arvo Pärt and so many musicians.” Join Dash’s Artistic Director, Josephine Burton as she travels to the Arvo Pärt Centre in Laulasmaa, Estonia to investigate the mystical musical relationship between nature and the people of Estonia From the...

On 4th July millions of UK voters will take to the polls. Candidates are vying for our attention through speeches and debates. In this special episode Artistic Director, Josephine Burton , catches up with four former speech-making workshop participants across the country on how they are experiencing the election campaign, and analyses our political candidates and the quality of their speechmaking...

Whilst the country builds up to a general election, we’re in the midst of creating Our Public House, Dash Arts’ state-of-the-nation theatre production . Hear from Artistic Director Josephine Burton and playwright Barney Norris on how our play weaves together the ideas and speeches of over 150 voices from across England and the ever shifting political landscape. Plus catch us in the rehearsal room...

In the still of a spring night, we journey into the woods with musicians Sam Lee and Jack Durtnall to hear the beautiful and increasingly rare song of the nightingale with a concert and conversation around the campfire.  Artistic Director Josephine Burton treads lightly in the footsteps of a historic partnership between the nightingale and humans. The BBC’s first ever live outside broadcast w...

“In many ways, I owe everything to the band.” It’s been over 25 years since two students ran into each other on a street corner in Oxford and decided to set up a band. Oi Va Voi, rooted in Jewish and Eastern European musical traditions, would eventually reach hundreds and thousands of people across the world.  Dash’s Artistic Director Josephine Burton and Jonathan Walton , also known as Lemez...

In this second episode on the journey towards our production, The Reckoning, we hear from journalist and author, Peter Pomerantsev who co-founded The Reckoning Project and who first shared with Dash the hundreds of witness testimonies from survivors of the Russian war in Ukraine. Dash’s Artistic Director, Josephine Burton and Podcast Producer, Marie Horner hear about Peter’s motivations for starti...

We’re in the pub for the next stage of Our Public House, a state-of-the-nation theatre production . Hear the show take shape in the studio and how Artistic Director Josephine Burton and playwright Barney Norris are being led by the speeches and writing of extraordinary individuals and communities from across the country. How do you pull together over 120 voices, ideas and stories to lock in a play...

“Finding a way to keep the darkness but continue to keep the joy so that there’s moments of relief in the theatre, that the actors feel it, that the audience feel it too. That’s really the challenge for me - how to make powerful theatre.” Josephine Burton, Artistic Director, Dash Arts This year Dash Arts is developing a new theatre production, The Reckoning ; based on personal accounts of survivor...

As 2024 arrives we look back on a year of new beginnings for Dash Arts. Join Artistic Director Josephine Burton and Dash’s Podcast Producer Marie Horner as they explore what we’ve learnt and what we haven’t learnt…yet. From the persecution of the Crimean Tatars in Crimea 5am , touring England to support the writing and delivery of over 120 speeches with communities in Our Public House and our firs...

“Grasp the subject, the words will follow.” Attributed to Cato The Elder  Artistic Director, Josephine Burton and Podcast Producer, Marie Horner regroup in the studio to reflect on a series of live events in Manchester and London that were the 2023 culmination of this year’s Public House project. We heard from speechwriters, activists and academics as we explored the ingredients of a gre...

“Take a deep breath in, now think about the future you want” Heidi in Cornwall.  What do you want to change? What do you want politicians to understand? We’ve travelled over 3000 miles and asked these questions to over 120 people during speech writing workshops across the country. The creative team at Dash Arts and our academic partners gather to reflect on what we’ve learnt and what’s surpri...

Join us on the road as we travel the length and breadth of England to hear what people want to change. In communities across Cornwall, Yorkshire, Norfolk, the North West, South East and the Midlands, we’re supporting people to write and deliver speeches on what difference they want to see. Robust public debate and the freedom to make arguments and counterarguments are essential to democracy. Today...