Isaac Babel: The Musical?

How might the stories of a Jewish man, writing in Russian, based in Odesa 100 years ago help us understand what’s happening in Ukraine today? Join Dash Arts’ Artistic Director Josephine Burton at the very start of an exploration into bringing to the stage the life and work of Isaac Babel.

This episode catches up with Josephine as she gathers together artists, writers, composers and translators to venture into Babel’s turbulent life and rich writings. We uncover how having a coffee with the artist and performer, Golda Amirova, sparked the beginnings of a music theatre production about this prolific writer Babel, born in today’s Ukraine. 

Translator of Babel’s Odessa Stories, Boris Dralyuk, shares Babel’s brutal and beautiful Odesa as well as the contemporary resonance of a violent era of early Soviet history through his translation of Red Cavalry. Plus we eavesdrop on the rehearsal room as Josephine pulls apart the imagery and possibilities that can be found in Babel’s work with composer Jonathan Walton and playwright Mark Rosenblatt. 

We don’t know exactly how this will end, but this episode uncovers how we’ve begun.

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In the podcast we’re grateful to hear from:

Boris Dralyuk - Poet and Translator
Golda Amirova - Artist
Jonathan Walton - Composer
Mark Rosenblatt - Director, Playwright and Screenwriter
Music : Леонид Утесов – Ты одессит, Мишка // Leonid Utyosov - You are from Odessa, Mishka