OffScript

In this episode, we explore the epic poems, The Aeneid, The Shanameh and The Odyssey, and their relevance today.   Delve into the narrative of these epics as we investigate why and how these stories are compelling in their contemporary renditions, as well as how oral storytelling traditions have shaped how we interpret them. Featuring interviews with Dash Arts artistic director Josephine Burt...

Protest Songs: Bella Ciao In the final episode of our Protest Songs mini-series, we discuss the history and ongoing significance of the Italian protest song ‘ Bella Ciao ’. Josephine Burton speaks to Professor Philip Cooke about the origins of the song and how its history has been gendered throughout time. Italian singer and songwriter, Virginia Sirolli , speaks of her personal connection to the s...

In the third and final episode of Making Middlemarch, the cast and crew reflect on their experience of The Great Middlemarch Mystery. Listen to director Josephine Burton chat to actors Aimee Powell and Ryan Van Champion and podcast producer Rachael Head about the realities of modernising Middlemarch, Otherness and much more.    Music Credits Intro music: Fakiiritanssi by Marouf Maji...

The second episode of Making Middlemarch brings you conversations straight from the rehearsal room.  Listen to cast members Tom Gordon, Amanda Hurwitz and Ryan Van Champion discussing their characters’ fears of change, and how those opinions are realised in the show.  Featuring clips of some of the actors reading lines in the rehearsal room and snippets of the show’s sound design. Hosted...

In this first episode of Making Middlemarch , discover how the idea of The Great Middlemarch Mystery was conceived and why the source text’s author, George Eliot, continues to enchant us today. Delve into the inspirations behind this adaptation and the creator’s theatrical visions. Uncover the real life stories from Coventry locals and how they will be woven into the show. Featuring a conversation...

Protest Songs: The Internationale In the first episode of our Protest Songs series, we explore the history of ' The Internationale ' and how it continues to inspire social change. Josephine Burton speaks to singer-songwriter Billy Bragg , who was motivated by the collapse of communism to rewrite the song and devote an album to it in 1990. Other speakers include historian Robert Service who gives a...

After its genesis in Berlin and its London premiere, our initial journey of Songs for Babyn Yar culminated in a performance in Kyiv, Ukraine, on 7 December 2021 - the city in which more than 100,000 people were massacred in the ravine of Babyn Yar during Nazi occupation.  In this podcast episode, the three artists involved and its director reflect on this climactic performance, and the emotio...

The second in our mini-series of episodes about our Dido's Bar project delves into the creative process of the three artists at the heart of this production. Hear about how director Josephine Burton , playwright Hattie Naylor and composer Marouf Majidi crossed paths and came to collaborate on this project, and how our recent music and creative writing workshops with communities in London and Oxfor...

80 years ago this autumn, Nazi occupying forces murdered more than 33,000 Jews in the ravine of Babyn Yar in the suburbs of Kyiv, Ukraine, over just two days. In the following two years of Nazi occupation, Babyn Yar became the site of over 100,000 deaths. This month, Dash Arts marks this anniversary by premiering a new music theatre production, Songs for Babyn Yar, in London and Ukraine with a wor...

Welcome to the first in a mini-series of podcast episodes dedicated to the creation of our upcoming show Dido's Bar , planned for autumn 2022. Dido's Bar is an immersive site-specific gig theatre production set in a cabaret bar on the borders of Europe that reimagines Virgil's Aeneid , exploring this timeless tale of migration through the lens of Europe today. In this podcast episode, discover the...

In the final episode of The Identity Series , our investigation into what happens to identity during moments of great national change brings our attention to Brexit and its impact on our own national identities in the UK. What does Europe mean today? What do we want from Europe, post-Brexit?  This podcast series forms part of EUTOPIA , our multi-year project that emerged as a direct response...

In this third episode of The Identity Series , we deepen our investigation into fractured national identity across Europe, through one of its most contemporary and violent examples: the collapse of Yugoslavia and subsequent wars that ripped across the former country. Hosted by Josephine Burton, a range of artists and historians discuss the tensions leading up to the collapse and its heartbreaking...

In this second episode of The Identity Series , we delve into the fraught and complex topic of empire, examining the decline and collapse of various empires across Europe, their aftershocks and their impact on the identity of their citizens. Speaking to experts and artists from a range of backgrounds, we discuss topics including the legacy of empire, the impact of colonisation, how different cultu...

In this first episode of The Identity Series , we explore the meaning and power of identity through the fascinating case of Polish-Lithuanian Nobel Prize-winning writer Czeslaw Milosz . Born in Lithuania, Milosz survived the Nazi occupation of Poland, became a member of the Polish Foreign Service under the communist regime, and was then exiled for being a strong critic of communism. His famous col...

In this episode recorded from our online Dash Café in May, we return to the iconic 2009 Estonian documentary  Disco and Atomic War and the topic of borders, propaganda and censorship. Audiences enjoyed excerpts from the film and conversation from speakers including Estonian TV journalist and  Disco and Atomic War  co-producer and co-screenwriter  Kiur Aarma ; Soviet-born Britis...

The fourth and final episode of our podcast mini-series, Breaking Silence , explores issues of censorship, self-censorship and cancel culture in the creation of art. Artistic Director Josephine Burton speaks to arts consultant Manick Govinda , who co-founded Brexit Creatives, about what he sees as the art world's censorship or 'cancelling' of pro-Brexit views; Samuel Beckett scholar Dr Jackie Blac...

The third episode of our podcast mini-series, Breaking Silence , looks at the silencing of cultural identity across national, ethnic and religious borders and ways in which international artists are unearthing these issues in their work. Artistic Director Josephine Burton speaks to theatre-maker Krzysztof Czyzewski , whose Borderlands project aims to revive the multicultural heritage of Poland’s S...

The second episode of our podcast mini-series, Breaking Silence , features writers and practitioners who are addressing the silencing of women and giving voice to female experience through artistic mediums.  Dash Arts' Artistic Director Josephine Burton speaks to theatre-maker Lucy Dear ( All in Your Head ); screenwriter and playwright Rebecca Lenkiewicz ( Ida ; Her Naked Skin ); theatre dire...

In the first episode of our four-part podcast series Breaking Silence , we examine Pacto del Olvido , Spain's 'pact of forgetting' - a collective decision to forget the thousands of crimes against humanity under Franco's 40-year dictatorship. Many of those who committed atrocities have still not been prosecuted and held to account, and Franco's victims continue to seek justice to this day. Dash Ar...

In this episode of the podcast, we delve into the remarkable history of 59 Brick Lane in London’s East End. With the Dash Arts base in East London’s Toynbee Studios and events regularly hosted at Rich Mix London, this ever-evolving building has long been our neighbour. A spiritual and communal home to thousands over the centuries; 59 Brick Lane was born as a Huguenot church, later becoming a Metho...

In October 2020 we hosted our first ever Digital Dash Café EUROPEANS: ARVO PÄRT to celebrate Estonian composer Arvo Pärt’s 85th birthday, and were overwhelmed and delighted to be joined by almost 300 screens from 25 countries. Due to popular demand, we’ve turned the event into a podcast, with some new, bonus content for our listeners. We were joined by son of the composer and Chairman of the Arvo...

As we release our final podcast of 2020, we're still muddling through Brexit in the UK, with the nation holding its breath to see what this momentous change will mean for us all In timely fashion, we're revisiting our live event Art on the Brink of Brexit, recorded in 2018, which hosted a panel of first and second generation migrant artists working in the UK, to discuss what Brexit would mean...

Can trauma be healed through art? Does it pass from generation to generation and how can we break the cycle? In this episode of the podcast, we look at memory, family history and inherited trauma through the eyes of artists and thinkers from around the world, who have investigated the impact of these issues in their work.   Hosted by Artistic Director Josephine Burton , with award-winning fil...

At Dash Arts, we are in the process of developing our brand new production The Great Middlemarch Mystery, a site-specific production in Coventry based on writer George Eliot’s classic Middlemarch, one of the greatest novels written in the English language. In this episode we return to our February Dash Café on George Eliot, hosted at Warwick Arts Centre by Artistic Director Josephine Burton with c...

In this episode of the Dash Arts Podcast, we delve into the life and work of the Curaçaoan-born Dutch artist, filmmaker and director  Felix de Rooy. Originally planned as a live Dash Café back in April (cancelled due to the pandemic), we had hoped to explore Felix’s work in a discussion with visual artist  Charl Landvreugd  and a panel of playwrights from the  BO...