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 and this month we open our new theatre production, The Reckoning; based on witness testimonies from the Russian war in Ukraine.
Join Dash’s Artistic Director, Josephine Burton, as she revisits our 2024 interview with critically acclaimed journalist Peter Pomerantsev and catch up with Georgian Artist and Activist Ana Riaboshenko on what it’s been like since the Georgian Dream party, widely seen as pro-Russian, maintained its majority in last year’s elections. Professor Alan Finlayson also shares his insights from his new book - Our Subversive Voice: The History and Politics of English Protest Songs, 1600–2020.
Book your tickets for The Reckoning on the Arcola Theatre’s website.
In the podcast, we hear from:
Josephine Burton - Artistic Director, Dash Arts
Peter Pomerantsev - Journalist and Author
Ana Riaboshenko - Artist & one of the Initiators of Culture for Democracy
Professor Alan Finlayson - Professor of Political and Social Theory at the University of East Anglia
Our intro music is Fakiiritanssi by Marouf Majidi
The images are from rehearsals which have started this week
We take you behind the scenes of our special Songs of Solidarity event recorded live at the Institute of Classical Studies. Join us as we explore what it means to create an epic for our time by bringing ancient narratives - from The Odyssey and Gilgamesh to the Mahabharata and Shahnameh- into conversation with contemporary migrant experiences.