New immersive theatre and music production Dido’s Bar to open in London this September

A new immersive theatre and music production will open in London this September ahead of a UK tour.

From Dash Arts, Dido’s Bar will open at The Factory in London’s historic Royal Docks from 23 September – 15 October 2022 before touring to Manchester, Leicester, Portsmouth, and Oxford.

Dido’s Bar is an epic retelling of Virgil’s Aeneid, created and performed by a multilingual international ensemble of actor-musicians, bringing to life the classic myth of migration, love, and assimilation, through the eyes of refugees today.

Nightly, divine bar managers, Juno and Venus, welcome world-class artists onto their stage and around their performances, the drama unfolds.

The work is inspired by director Josephine Burton’s encounter with Kurdish Iranian refugees and now Finnish resident, and composer Marouf Majidi and is written by Hattie Naylor.

The production has additional composition, music direction & sound design by Riku Kantola, set and costume Design by Bryan Woltjen and movement direction by Ayse Tashkiran.

On the cast are Gemma Barnett, Amie Buhari, Simon Edwards, Riku Kantola, Tuukka Leppänen, Lola May, Marouf Majidi, Richie Sweet, Stylianos Thomadakis and Georgina White.

Director Josephine Burton, Artistic Director of Dash said: “The ancient myth of Aeneas, a refugee from the war-torn East who travels across the Mediterranean to seek sanctuary and build a new home in Europe, is truly a tale for our time.

“We are bringing it hurtling into the present – setting the drama in a music club on the edge of town, where the heroes of old are now the great music stars of today, with a little jazz and world music thrown in!”

For more information and tickets, visit www.dasharts.org.uk