Advertise on podcast: OffScript

What does it mean to stay balanced and grounded in a shifting world? This episode of OffScript was recorded live at STEADY, the second event in Dash Arts’ We Are Free To Change The World series. Through live performance and conversation, the evening focused on staying; on staying open without burning out, staying yourself in dialogue without collapsing into agreement or disagreement and staying human amid pressure, speed and polarisation. Hosted by Dash Arts’ Artistic Director Josephine Burton, with Natasha Walter, Liz Slade, Tasneim Zyada, and Mohammed Ali, the contributors shared perspectives rooted in activism, faith, art and lived experience. Together, they reflect on what it means to remain grounded while responding to a world in flux — and how steadiness itself can be a radical, collective practice. Find out more about their work here: Natasha Walter - www.natashawalter.co.uk Liz Slade - www.elizabethslade.uk Tasneim Zyada - www.instagram.com/tasneimzyada Mohammed Ali - www.artofmohammedali.com The live event was co-presented by Dash Arts, Arts Admin and Fete of Britain. Get your tickets for the live events for We Are Free To Change The World by going to the Dash Arts website : https://www.dasharts.org.uk/we-are-free  Our intro music is Fakiiritanssi by Marouf Majidi  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode of OffScript Josephine Burton is joined by Professor Lyndsey Stonebridge. They delve into Hannah Arendt's belief in collective action as the essence of freedom.  Lyndsey discusses Arendt's life, her impact on political philosophy, and her relevance in contemporary social movements. Exploring how her theories inspire artists and activists today, the conversation highlights Arendt's idea of politics as something we perform in public and the power of human resilience and action. Get your tickets for the live events for We Are Free To Change The World by going to the Dash Arts website : https://www.dasharts.org.uk/we-are-free  Our intro music is Fakiiritanssi by Marouf Majidi Photo of Lindsay Stonebridge by Ione Saizar. --- Headlines in the episode: 00:00 Introduction to OffScript 00:46 Exploring Freedom with Lyndsey Stonebridge  02:56 Hannah Arendt's Life and Influence  12:51 The Relevance of Arendt's Ideas Today 23:24 Art, Performance, and Political Action  28:42 Navigating Dark Times with Hope  40:22 Conclusion and Upcoming Events Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

What does it take to prepare for change — artistically, emotionally, politically?  This episode of OffScript was recorded live at the opening event in Dash Arts’ We Are Free To Change The World series. Through performance and conversation, the event explored the conditions that help artists and creative activists find their ground to listen, to make, to resist, and to come together. Hosted by Dash Arts’ Artistic Director Josephine Burton, the conversation features Bishi Bhattacharya, Lehni Lamide Davies, Carole Cadwalladr, and Sam Lee, reflecting on readiness rooted in care, courage, and collective imagination. Find out more about their work here: https://www.bishi.co.uk/  https://www.lehnilamide.com/contact  https://broligarchy.substack.com/about  http://samleesong.co.uk/  Get your tickets for the live events for We Are Free To Change The World by going to the Dash Arts website : https://www.dasharts.org.uk/we-are-free  Our intro music is Fakiiritanssi by Marouf Majidi  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode of We Are Free to Change the World, Dash Arts’ Artistic Director Josephine Burton is joined by the legendary artist Peter Kennard. Inspired by Hannah Arendt’s belief in our freedom to begin anew, Josephine and Peter examine how art becomes a form of political action—shifting public consciousness, exposing injustice, and giving shape to the possible futures. They discuss the challenges of making radical work in increasingly authoritarian and fearful times, and why visual art still has the power to mobilise, unsettle, and inspire. Peter shares stories from five decades on the frontlines of artistic dissent, reflecting on collaboration, solidarity, and the urgent need to make work now more than ever. Get your tickets for the live events for We Are Free To Change The World by going to the Dash Arts website: https://www.dasharts.org.uk/we-are-free  Our intro music is Fakiiritanssi by Marouf Majidi  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

“[Dash] reaches beyond the creation of its work and its interpretation of human experience. You go to places that others don't.” For Dash Arts’ 20th anniversary, OffScript host Josephine Burton is joined by one of the UK’s leading champions of justice, Baroness Helena Kennedy LT KC. Helena and Josephine explore how the arts and the law shift public imagination, from movements for social justice to the urgent need for transitional justice in Ukraine and beyond. She also reflects on her decades-long groundbreaking work in fighting for human rights, women’s rights, and miscarriages of justice—and why jury trials are essential to any healthy democracy. Get your tickets for the live events for We Are Free To Change The World by going to the Dash Arts website : dasharts.org.uk/we-are-free  Our intro music is Fakiiritanssi by Marouf Majidi  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In the second episode of our mini-series, "We Are Free to Change the World," inspired by Hannah Arendt's call to action, Dash Arts' Artistic Director Josephine Burton is joined by Labour MP for Norwich South, Clive Lewis.  From his House of Commons office, Clive Lewis discusses the struggle for freedom within contemporary politics. The conversation explores his belief that the "only real freedom we have is the freedom to... find out about the world around us," and his concerns about the "grim authoritarianism and a culture of fear" stifling creativity and genuine engagement in the Labour Party. Join Josephine and Clive as they discuss the essential role of imagination and art in shaping political visions—from science fiction to the NHS, and the loss of social democratic parties’ ability to “dream big.” They also explore the difference between optimism and pragmatic hope as a driving force for political change, Clive’s experience as a participant in Dash Arts’ speechmaking workshops and the need for collaboration and solidarity to counter increasing polarisation and fear. Get your tickets for the live events for We Are Free To Change The World by going to the Dash Arts website : https://www.dasharts.org.uk/we-are-free  Our intro music is Fakiiritanssi by Marouf Majidi  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Through a series of live and digital conversations - we’re exploring how artists and activists challenge, inspire, and motivate us to see the world differently.  Join Josephine Burton as she sits down with musician and artist Ian Bruce and campaigner Clare Farrell to discuss creativity, activism, and the courage to imagine radical change. In this groundbreaking episode, hear how artists are transforming protest, challenging systemic barriers, and creating spaces for people to come together.  From Extinction Rebellion to grassroots movements, discover how creative individuals are reimagining democracy, confronting climate crisis, and building solidarity. Provocative, inspiring, and deeply human, their conversation reveals how we can all play a role in changing the world.  Recorded in the Bureau of Silly Ideas on the 7th anniversary of Clare co-founding Extinction Rebellion.  Get your tickets for the live events for We Are Free To Change The World by going to the Dash Arts website : https://www.dasharts.org.uk/we-are-free  Our intro music is Fakiiritanssi by Marouf Majidi This podcast is marked explicit for language only. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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 than a decade of artistic research, events and productions deepened our understanding of the Ukrainian context and enriched the work. Similarly, playwright Barney Norris reflects on the challenges of continuing to navigate the shifting political and social landscape in the UK and its influence on Our Public House. Go to the Dash Arts website for your tickets to We Are Free To Change The World; a new series of three Dash Cafés exploring how artists and creative activists respond to the urgency of our times. Through performance, film and conversation, each event will bring together creative voices to consider how we act and how we do this together.  Our intro music is Fakiiritanssi by Marouf Majidi  And you can hear audio taken from Dash Arts’ production of The Reckoning at Arcola Theatre in May-June 2025 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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 notions of Arabic culture, and from musician Sasha Ilyukevich who performed in our Dash Arts Dachas, some of which were covertly visited by the Russian Embassy.  Discovering how our mission to challenge the way we see the world is woven into our DNA, and how life and global politics have consistently broken down the walls into the theatre. With music from Sasha Ilyukevich & The Highly Skilled Migrants entitled KOLYA - КОЛЯ. Our intro music is Fakiiritanssi by Marouf Majidi Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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 from Dash’s multi-year seasons of artistic work. We hear about Dash’s journeys in the Arabic world, former Soviet States, Europe and its current season exploring Englishness, with Albion. This episode is an invitation to listen in on two decades of music that continues to challenge, delight, and change how we hear the world. In the podcast, we hear from: Josephine Burton - Artistic Director, Dash Arts  Marie Horner - Podcast Producer, Dash Arts We also hear from and celebrate these incredible artists: Sto Let - Iva Bittová and Vladimír VáclavekMy Show - Lyrical Alliance (Rabah Donquishoot (Algeria), Shadia Mansour (Palestine), Rayess Bek (Lebanon), Samm (Jordan), Tamer Nafar (Palestine) And DJ MK (UK))  Shadia + Johnny Juice for Lyrical AllianceQuata3et - Lyrical AllianceAmy Kakoura at a Dash Cafe at Warwick Arts Centre - February 2020  Maspindzeli Choir at a Dash Cafe at Rich Mix, July 2014 Hilda Lansman & Tuomas Norvio - VizarditZugzwang - Langham Research Centre Olesya Zdorovetska at a Dash Cafe at Rich Mix, January 2017  Song About a Friend - Vladimir VysotskyIryna Muha at a Dash Cafe at Rich Mix, April 2017The Renegade Orchestra (Evelina Petrova, Slava Guyvronsky, Matyakubov Shavkat, Misha Alperin, Reso Kiknadze, Zoltan Almashi, Natasha Pshenitschnikova, Vladimir Volkov, Kryukova Marina, Sergei Starostin and Petr Glavatskikh and composer Alexander Manotskov, playwright Natalia Vorozhbyt and director Galina Pyanova) Sasha Ilyukevich and the Highly Skilled Migrants at the Dash Arts Dacha at Latitude Festival July 2017 One Hundred Moons from Dido’s Bar - (recorded by Samira Brahmia and Marouf Majidi with Hattie Naylor, Tuukka Leppänen, Riku Kantola and Josephine Burton).The cast and house band of Dido’s Bar (Gemma Barnett, Priscille Grace, Tuukka Leppänen, Lola May, Lahcen Razzougui, Georgina White, Marouf Majidi, Ben Sutcliffe and the Dido’s Bar House Band)  Songs for Babyn Yar - Music composed and arranged by Yuriy Gurzhy, Svetlana Kundish and Mariana Sadovska.Ey, Güzel Qırım sung by the cast from Crimea 5am. Our intro music is Fakiiritanssi by Marouf Majidi  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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, 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. This is our last episode before we have a summer holiday so we’ll be back in September! In the podcast, we hear from: Josephine Burton - Artistic Director, Dash Arts  Marie Horner - Podcast Producer, Dash Arts Janine di Giovanni - Journalist and Executive Director of The Reckoning Project And reflections and performances recorded live at the Arcola Theatre Dr Olesya Khromeychuk - Writer and Director of Ukrainian Institute, London Peter Pomerantsev - Journalist, Author and Executive Editor at The Reckoning Project Tsvetelina van Benthem - Senior Legal Advisor at The Reckoning Project and Lecturer at Oxford University Viv Groskop - Author and Journalist Luke Harding - Journalist and Author Olia Hercules - Chef, Food Writer and Author Dr Yulia Ioffe - International Lawyer & Associate Professor of Humanitarian Law and Human Rights at University College London Nataliya Gumenyuk - Journalist and CEO of Public Interest Journalism Lab Tom Godwin - Actor, The Reckoning Marianne Oldham - Actor, The Reckoning  Olga Safronova - Actor, The Reckoning  Our intro music is Fakiiritanssi by Marouf Majidi  Music from The Reckoning by Anton Baibakov  We’d like to that the following supporters; The Reckoning Project, AHRC Impact Acceleration Account Award from the University of Cambridge, Public Interest Journalism Lab, Open Society Foundations, Nick Tranter in the name of 4Ukraine Humanitarian Aid, Fritt Ord Foundation, Goethe-Institut in Exile, Goethe-Institut London, SAV Group, Royal Victoria Hall Foundation, The Golsoncott Foundation, and the many individuals who have made this possible. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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 real events within The Reckoning Project’s verified archive of witness testimonies of the Russian war in Ukraine, The Reckoning is playful and unsettling, blending storytelling with movement, music and cooking. As the performance ends, the conversation continues in Food for Thought. Audiences will be invited to hear reflections from expert speakers, journalists, lawyers, and those with lived experience of the conflict.  Written by Anastasiia Kosodii and Josephine Burton, and directed by Burton. In the podcast, we hear from: Josephine Burton - Artistic Director, Dash Arts  Tom Godwin - The Man from Stoyanka Marianne Oldham - The Journalist Olga Safronova - Olga / Echo  Simeon Kylsyi - Sam / Echo Marie Horner - Podcast Producer Our intro music is Fakiiritanssi by Marouf Majidi  Music from The Reckoning by Anton Baibakov  We’d like to that the following supporters; The Reckoning Project, Royal Victoria Hall Foundation, AHRC Impact Acceleration Account Award from the University of Cambridge, Public Interest Journalism Lab, Open Society Foundations, Nick Tranter in the name of 4Ukraine Humanitarian Aid, Fritt Ord Foundation, Goethe-Institut in Exile, Goethe-Institut London, SAV Group, The Golsoncott Foundation, and the many individuals who have made this possible. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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 Kosodii and Josephine Burton created the play from The Reckoning Project’s verified archive of witness testimonies of the Russian war in Ukraine. Find out why Olia’s insights and beautiful cooking is so vital to our staging of these experiences. To book tickets or to read more about The Reckoning see the Dash Arts website. If you haven’t already, you can hear the other episodes of this podcast mini-series on The Reckoning where we explore our process towards production, speaking to author and journalist Peter Pomerantsev on why he shared the testimonies with Dash as well as Rory Finnin, Professor of Ukrainian Studies at the University of Cambridge. In the podcast, we hear from: Josephine Burton - Artistic Director, Dash Arts  Olia Hercules - Chef & The Reckoning Food Consultant Zoë Hurwitz - The Reckoning Set Designer  Our intro music is Fakiiritanssi by Marouf Majidi and throughout you can hear Tykho feat Syoda by composer of The Reckoning, Anton Baibakov. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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 we understand women, art, and mental health: 🖼 Women & Freud: Patients, Pioneers, Artists – curated by Lisa Appignanesi and Bryony Davies 🎨 Charlotte Johnson Wahl: What It Felt Like – at Bethlem Museum of the Mind Both exhibitions showcase art that reframes women’s stories and reclaims narratives of mental wellbeing. Josephine is joined by writer and long-term Dash Arts collaborator Hattie Naylor to discuss these themes in the context of their latest project, The Degenerates—a new production that will explore the overlooked female artists of Dr. Hans Prinzhorn’s groundbreaking collection. From 1919 to 1922, Prinzhorn gathered extraordinary artworks from psychiatric patients across Europe, publishing The Artistry of the Mentally Ill—a book that profoundly influenced 20th-century art. But while his collection celebrated creativity beyond the bounds of convention, many female artists were left out of the story. The Degenerates seeks to set the record straight. Listen as we uncover hidden histories, challenge perceptions, and explore the intersection of art, mental health, and power. See pictures from the two exhibitions on the Dash Arts podcast page. And you can follow our research towards The Degenerates on the Dash Arts blog: https://www.dasharts.org.uk/blog/our-artistic-director-on-research-for-a-new-dash-production  In this episode we hear from: Josephine Burton - Artistic Director of Dash Arts Hattie Naylor - Writer & Visual Artist Lisa Appignanesi - Writer and Curator  Colin Gale - Director of Bethlam Museum of the Mind Rebecca Raybone - Collections and Exhibitions Officer Bethlam Museum of the Mind Marie Horner - Podcast Producer of Dash Arts Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.