THE RECKONING to Tour UK Ahead of Ukraine War Anniversary

Touring, then returning to Arcola Theatre to coincide with the fifth anniversary of the start of the war in Ukraine, Dash Arts' dramatisation of witness testimonies gathered by Ukrainian journalists tells stories of survivors of Russian aggression. The Reckoning is performed by two Ukrainian actors – who bring their own experiences to the performance – and two British actors, and written by Dash Arts co-founder Josephine Burton with Ukrainian playwright Anastasiia Kosodii. Following a journalist who travels to a small town outside Kyiv to interview The Man from Stoyanka, an ordinary security guard who chose to stay when everyone else had fled, the show blends storytelling, music, movement and onstage cooking to tell stories of war, survival and the search for truth.

Based on real events within The Reckoning Project's verified archive of witness testimonies of the Russian war in Ukraine, each performance ends with a five-minute reflection from a journalist, lawyer or those with direct experience of the conflict whilst the audience are served Ukrainian salad, made on stage during the performance. The Reckoning, which premiered at the Arcola Theatre in May 2025 to critical acclaim and an Offie nomination for Best Creation, is the company's most sustained engagement with the Russian war in Ukraine, the culmination of over a decade of collaboration with Ukrainian artists, writers and musicians.

Director and co-writer Josephine Burton said, “Making The Reckoning reminded me that theatre can do something that neither journalism nor the law can do alone, it can make an audience feel the weight of a single life, in the room, right now. With this tour, returning to coincide with the fifth anniversary of the full-scale invasion, that urgency feels more acute than ever. We owe it to the people whose stories we carry to keep telling them, and to find new audiences to hear them.”

Co-writer Anastasiia Kosodii added, “The stories we tell in this play are true. This play is clearly an act of political art. Yet at the same time, it exists in a universal dimension that each of us can understand – we all know about love, loss, courage and cowardice, the longing for what is currently out of reach, fear, and the stubborn determination to move forward in spite of that fear.'

Dash Arts was co-founded in 2005 by Josephine Burton and Tim Supple. Over the last two decades, the company has created award-winning work with artists and participants from more than fifty countries, reaching live audiences of over 400,000 worldwide. Productions span continents and forms: from the double Olivier Award-winning Babel and the Indian A Midsummer Night's Dream (RSC in Stratford, Roundhouse and international tour), to the site-specific promenade The Great Middlemarch Mystery, created for Coventry City of Culture 2021. Recent work has included Crimea 5am, presented at the Kiln Theatre as part of the UK-Ukraine Season of Culture, and Our Public House by Barney Norris (national tour). Dash Arts also produces OffScript, a podcast series hosted by Josephine Burton that takes on the big questions of our time through an artistic lens. Dash Arts' productions have toured extensively in the UK, Europe, Australia and North America, and have received numerous awards and nominations including Olivier, Evening Standard, TMA, Herald Angel and Dora Awards

The Reckoning Project was founded by acclaimed war correspondent and academic Janine di Giovanni and disinformation expert Peter Pomerantsev in response to Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Tour Dates

28 – 30 Jan Belgrade Theatre, Coventry
Belgrave Square, Coventry, West Midlands CV1 1GS

2 – 6 Feb Chichester Festival Theatre
Oaklands Way, Chichester PO19 6AP

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