Crimea 5am

Crimea 5am brings together the voices of extraordinary women, bound together by the Russian persecution of Crimean Tatars in 2014. In this episode, Artistic Director Josephine Burton looks back on how Dash Arts brought together a cast of actors, activists and journalists to stage this unique piece of verbatim theatre in London during January 2023.

Through personal stories and testimonies of love and struggle in Crimea today, and combining victim and activist interviews, Crimea 5am highlights the stories of 10 political prisoners and their families. The piece celebrates the sheer determination and activism within this oppressed community, the bravery of the prisoners in documenting abuses, and its defiant women holding the ravaged community together.

Since 2014, civil activists and in particular representatives of the indigenous people of the Crimean peninsula, Crimean Tatars, have been persecuted by Russian occupying forces. Obscured by a news blackout, we know little of these events, little of the prisoners themselves, their families and life in Crimea under occupation.

In this episode, our Artistic Director Josephine Burton and Podcast Producer Marie Horner listen to archive clips of the performance as well as journalists, academics, activists and the cast.

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In the podcast, we hear from:

Dr Rory Finnin, Associate Professor of Ukrainian Studies, University of Cambridge
Maria Romanenko, Ukrainian journalist and Crimea 5am cast member
Anastasiia Kosodii, playwright and co-writer of Crimea 5am
Natalya Gumenyuk, Ukrainian journalist and filmmaker
Alexandra Hall Hall, former British Ambassador to Georgia and Crimea 5am cast member
Music: Ey, Güzel Qırım sung by the cast from Crimea 5am

Crimea 5am was produced at The Kiln in January 2023 as part of the British Council and the Ukrainian Institute UK/Ukraine Season of Culture. The original production of Crimea 5аm was initiated by the Ukrainian Institute and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine as part of the Crimea Platform. The original performance was directed by Dmytro Kostiumynskyi and produced by Dollmen.