The Reckoning tours to Coventry and Chichester in the new year before returning to the Arcola Theatre in February, timed to the fifth anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
The Reckoning goes on tour from 28 January 2027, with dates at the Belgrade Theatre in Coventry and Chichester Festival Theatre before a London return at the Arcola Theatre from 17-27 February. Dash Arts first staged the piece at the Arcola in May 2025, where it was nominated for Best Creation at the Offies.
The show stages real witness testimonies from the war in Ukraine, drawn from the verified archive assembled by The Reckoning Project. It follows a journalist travelling to a small town outside Kyiv to interview The Man from Stoyanka, a security guard who stayed put when everyone around him left. Two Ukrainian actors, who bring their own experience of the war to the stage, perform alongside two British actors; casting is still to be announced.
It is written by Anastasiia Kosodii and Josephine Burton, and directed by Burton, who co-founded Dash Arts in 2005. Storytelling, music and movement are set against live cooking: a Ukrainian salad is prepared on stage during the performance and served to the audience, and each night closes with a five-minute reflection from a journalist, a lawyer or someone with direct experience of the conflict.
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.”
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.”
The Guardian gave the Arcola run four stars, calling it “a forensic charge sheet in dramatic form”.
Anton Baibakov composes, with set design by Zoë Hurwitz, lighting by Joshua Pharo, costume by Olivia Jamieson and sound by Bella Kear. Josie Daxter is movement director, Olia Hercules food consultant and Abby Galvin casting director, with Nataliya Gumenyuk and Peter Pomerantsev as testimonies consultants and Lou Platt on artist wellbeing.
The production runs 90 minutes without an interval, is performed in English and Ukrainian with live translation, and is recommended for ages 14 and over.
Tour dates:
- 28-30 January 2027: Belgrade Theatre, Coventry — from £12
- 2-6 February 2027: Chichester Festival Theatre, Chichester — £5 to £31
- 17-27 February 2027: Arcola Theatre, London — £20 to £29
Press night in Coventry is Friday 29 January 2027 at 7.15pm, and London press night is Wednesday 17 February 2027 at 7pm. The Chichester dates play evenings at 7.15pm with matinees on Wednesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays.
