Eutopia
As a direct response to the 2016 EU Referendum, in January 2018 Dash Arts embarked on a journey: EUTOPIA - our investigation into what it means to be European.
Dash Arts sought to highlight and celebrate Europe’s diversity and hidden marvels; confronting generalisation and encourage new insights and fierce debate.
EUTOPIA culminated in our UK touring production of Dido’s Bar in 2022 inspired by composer Marouf Majidi’s own personal journey to Europe. Our podcasts document the process of making this show and all the research that preceeded it. We began making podcasts in Spring 2020 in the midst of our EUTOPA season when live events were no longer possible due to the pandemic.
Dash Arts podcasts with young people from Newham who are part of Community Links. The discussions revolves around Dido’s Bar, it’s themes and how it relates with their lives.
Listen to hear how the Writer and Director of Dido’s Bar tackled telling the story of a refugee and how music has been weaved into the fabric of the performance.
Listen to explore how storytelling can reclaim lost stories in myth and how we’re rebalancing the gender dynamics in our next production, Dido's Bar.
In this episode, we explore three epic poems and their relevance today. Delve into how these tales compel us today, and the oral storytelling traditions that shape their impact.
In the final episode of our Protest Songs mini-series, we discuss the history and ongoing significance of the Italian protest song ‘Bella Ciao’.
In the first episode of our Protest Songs series, we explore the history of 'The Internationale' and how it continues to inspire social change.
Hear about how director Josephine Burton, playwright Hattie Naylor and composer Marouf Majidi crossed paths and came to collaborate on this project.
Discover the myth of Aeneas and its significance in society today. Delve into the inspirations behind the production itself, its origin story and its theatrical vision.
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?
In this third episode of The Identity Series, we investigate the collapse of Yugoslavia and subsequent wars that ripped across the former country.
In this second episode of The Identity Series, we delve into the fraught and complex topic of empire.
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 Czesław Miłosz.
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.
The fourth and final episode of Breaking Silence, explores issues of censorship, self-censorship and cancel culture in the creation of art.
The third episode of 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.