Dash Arts presents a month-long enchanted performance space, modelled on the iconic Russian summer house set within the revolutionary turmoil of 1917. The Dacha acts as a backdrop and set for a whole series of different performances, delving into life in 1917 through the eyes of the Popov family dacha in Vyritsa, several hours outside Petrograd. Â Artistic Director, Josephine Burton joined us to give us an idea of what to expect.
Dash Arts Dacha will be in residence at Rich Mix, 35-47 Bethnal Green Road, Monday 12th June – Tuesday 11th July 2017.
Tell us a little about your upcoming month long residency at Rich Mix?
We’re at Rich Mix with the Dash Arts Dacha – a month-long performance space, modelled on the iconic Russian summer house set within the revolutionary turmoil of 1917. Our Dacha is hosted by a family – Anna and Alexei Popov and their various relations, friends and attendants. Guests to the Dacha are welcomed inside, offered tea, sometimes vodka and various snacks and filled in on the latest gossip and political scandals. The Dacha is also the backdrop and set for a whole series of different performances.
Why have you chosen the Dacha theme?
At Dash Arts we have been immersed in the world of the former Soviet Union for several years – creating work with artists about how it was to live in Soviet Times and how it is to live today in its shadows.
Several years ago, Dash Arts was invited to Latitude Festival. Tania Harrison, the festival programmer, was keen that we brought some element of our work in the Post-Soviet States to the wondrous mix of performance, music, theatre and play that she and her colleagues create each summer. As she described the location of her Faraway Forest, in the woods, removed from the thoroughfare of the main festival drag, I pictured the wooded landscapes and dappled light of the Russian and Post-Soviet films and images that I was currently steeped in. I suggested we create a Russian country house, a Dacha, for their Forest.
The Dacha became the vessel for our experiments and performance. Thanks to our wonderful designer Bryan Woltjen, we created an evocative space… a summer house with portraits of family members on the walls, wicker furniture, icons, a working samovar, maps, books, cryllic scrabble and chess. It has become a place where we create some sense of nostalgia for our visitors with roots in the Post-Soviet States and a window into a world for those for whom the Dacha is entirely new.
What does this month long event give you the opportunity to do?
This year, the centenary of the Russian revolution, also marks the climax of our research, creation and production with artists from the Post-Soviet World. As part of this work, REVOLUTION17, we’ve created a longer-form Dacha, set in Vyritsa, a few hours south of Petrograd in 1917. Through this month we’re able to explore, in depth, the period starting in Spring 1917, just after the abdication of the Tsar – his portrait remains on the wall in the dacha as the Popovs haven’t worked out whom to replace him with. Slowly the residency will move through the year towards the October Revolution. Content will change as will the icons on the wall. On 9th July, Lenin will be firmly in residence.
Is there something for everyone to enjoy?
Yes. The ever-changing daily programme of Dash Arts Dacha will feature live music, films, food, fevered discussion with special guest speakers and plays. On weekend afternoons, we’ve programmed storytelling and performance for all ages to enjoy. And later into the nights, we have late night DJs where we’ll roll back the carpet and dance manically to turbo-punk, drawing on a century of Russian music and culture. Come and just have a cup of tea or maybe something stronger from the bar to fortify yourself for the revolutionary experience.
What kind of performers are also getting involved?
We’ve brought together an exceptional group of artists from across the artforms across the month. This includes wonderful UK-based musicians such as Belarusian punk rocker Sasha Ilyukevich and His Highly Skilled Migrants, the superb gypsy-tango Mazaika Duo, Polina Proutskaya and her folk ensemble Izba Voices, Polina Shepherd and her Russian Choir and Ukrainian singers Elena Dana and Iryna Muha. We have storytellers, food workshops and performances of Prokofiev’s Peter and The Wolf. My friends Theatre Borsht will bring to life classic Russian plays and works of literature with the aid of a cast of vegetables in their small puppet theatre.
Plus crucially our audiences are essential ‘performers’ within the Dacha – as our guests you become the most important part of our event, not only as audience member and tea-drinker but even as actor. One of our regular Dacha rituals is to share around a script and bring a play or text to impromptu life. We’ll be relying on you to help us.
There’s lots planned, what are you looking forward to the most?
We have some thrilling events planned. On 1st July, we’ll go through the night – in the spirit of the endless White Nights of the north where the sun doesn’t set – and as part of Whitechapel Gallery’s Art Night we’ll present 10 Days that Shook the World, an evening of live music sets, DJs, screenings of Warren Beaty’s Reds and Eisenstein’s October and over the course of the night, we’ll present a theatrical adaptation of John Reed’s 10 Days that Shook the World. There’ll be breakfast for those who make it through the night at 4.30am! And we’ve invited in some guests: Jay Rayner will present his BBC Radio 4’s Kitchen Cabinet from around the Kitchen Table in the Dacha and East 15 Acting School will make and present new plays with us throughout the month.
