Josephine Burton takes us inside the rehearsal room of Our Public House, Dash Arts' new touring theatre production and the culmination of our series of work on Albion.

We join the company during their rehearsals at Toynbee Studios while some of the country heads to the polls in local elections. Assistant Director Scott Hurran shares insights into the collective creation of characters and how communities across the country have shaped the play's development.

Set in a pub, Our Public House is a play about Englishness: who we are, what we've lost, and what we might still become.

Our Public House tours England from May 2026. Get your tickets and find out more on the Dash Arts website: https://www.dasharts.org.uk/our-public-house

Our intro music is Fakiiritanssi by Marouf Majidi

You also hear a preview of Rent Controls Now and All The Same by Jonathan Walton, arranged by Yaniv Fridel.

Thanks to the cast and crew for welcoming us in with our microphones.

Mary - Gabriella Leon

Sanjana - Bharti Patel

Anika - Chaya Gupta

Scott - Fergus O’Donnell

Jo - Lauren Moakes

Tom - Kit Esuruoso

Company Stage Manager - Cora Frank

Deputy Stage Manager - Alice Kelly

Written by Barney Norris

Created and Directed by Josephine Burton

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What does Englishness sound like?

In this episode of OffScript, Dash Arts' Artistic Director Josephine Burton is joined by musician, songwriter, and activist Billy Bragg for an electric conversation about England - its flags, its contradictions, and its capacity for protest.

Billy and Josephine dig into what it means to love a country and argue with it at the same time. They explore the politics of the English flag, the radical traditions buried in folk music, and whether a song can actually change the world. Billy even sings.

The conversation spills into Our Public House, Dash Arts' new touring theatre production, a state-of-the-nation play set in a pub, born out of four years of travelling England and listening to over 700 people talk about the country they want to live in. It's the kind of England Billy Bragg has been singing about for decades, and it turns out he has a lot to say about it.

Because if anyone has spent a lifetime making the case for a different kind of Englishness, one rooted in solidarity, humour, and dissent, it's Billy Bragg.

Our Public House is touring England, opening at Leeds Playhouse from May 15th before touring to Prescot, Coventry, Sheffield, Cornwall and London. Find out more at https://www.dasharts.org.uk/our-public-house

This episode is part of Dash Arts' Albion series - an ongoing exploration of what it means to be English today.

Our intro music is Fakiiritanssi by Marouf Majidi

Billy Bragg photo by Murdo MacLeod

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What makes someone English - and who gets to decide?

In this episode of Off Script, Dash Arts' Artistic Director Josephine Burton is joined by choreographer Shobana Jeyasingh, born in India, raised in Sri Lanka and Malaysia, and educated in the UK, whose internationalism has always been at the heart of her practice.

Shobana and Josephine explore what Englishness and Britishness actually mean, and why the tension between them matters. Shobana reflects on how English literature and a culture of open debate shaped her own values, even as she felt, in many ways, an outsider looking in.

At the centre of the conversation is Shobana's production We Caliban, which draws on Shakespeare's The Tempest to interrogate the encounter between non-European cultures and the colonising gaze of Prospero. It's a work about empire, migration, and the questions that remain stubbornly unresolved. The Tempest is also the source material for Dash Arts’ forthcoming production, Our Public House.

Together, Josephine and Shobana make the case for why the arts, more than politics or policy, can hold the complexity that simple definitions of belonging refuse to.

You can now buy tickets for our new touring theatre production, Our Public House. Find out more on the Dash Arts website : https://www.dasharts.org.uk/our-public-house

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