Tamasha Tales Armenia
Tamasha Tales is back and this year we are proud to premiere a newly commissioned work created in partnership with the Armenian Centre for Contemporary Experimental Art (NPAK), as part of the British Council’s Connections Through Culture Programme.
Tamasha Tales is a series which aims to celebrate global storytelling and cultural intersectionality through multi-disciplinary artistic collaboration.
Folk tales, myths and fairy tales bridge the gap between our childhood and adulthood and for that reason they continue to resonate and endure generation after generation. Ultimately, these stories reflect upon and teach us about the human condition which transcends all other differences. Adapted, revised and transformed in each telling, they remain accessible through our rich oral, visual and written histories.
Tamasha Tales is an opportunity for a broad range of artists to interpret a Global South folk tale, whilst responding to current socio-political contexts.
We’re delighted to introduce 2026’s co-creative team and the remarkable new piece they have developed together.
Silva Chobanyan
Drawing on her roots in theatre and performance, Silvana Chobanyan creates immersive installation art that transforms personal and collective memories into tangible experiences.Her work delves into themes of memory, personal experience, and women’s stories, using found objects—metal, wood—integrated with fabric and yarn to weave evocative, tactile spaces. Her practice is at once poetic and direct—intimate in its exploration of personal memory yet unflinching in its social resonance.
Based in Yerevan, Chobanyan has exhibited her work from Tbilisi to Paris and Berlin, bridging cultural dialogues through art and remaining committed to community engagement and the evolution of contemporary art in Armenia and beyond.
Abi Zakarian
Abi Zakarian is an award-winning British-Armenian playwright. Her plays include Welfare, Derby Theatre; Age is Revolting, for National Theatre Connections; Lullaby, Shakespeare’s Globe, and I Am Karyan Ophidian for the Sam Wanamaker Theatre at Shakespeare’s Globe.
Her play Fabric won a Scotsman Fringe First award, and she won the Vault Festival People’s Choice Award for I Have A Mouth And I Will Scream. Her play Fabric (as Hilos) has recently completed a long running tour in Mexico. Abi co-founded and runs the horror theatre company Terrifying Women, and she co-founded and runs the Armenian Creatives UK network. She is co-creator of Finding Large Monuments to be Destroyed, a new immersive play which begins a UK tour in 2026. Her award-winning short film, Pomegranate, has just completed the festival circuit while her second short, MEAT, is in post-production. Abi is under commission with A.T.C & Riksteatern Sweden, and is developing various TV and film projects.
The Wanderer
Ara has travelled far from one home in search of another; somewhere she hopes to discover belonging. Drawn to a fabled mountain in Armenia she begins an arduous journey to its summit, encountering a magical landscape and mythical creatures who help her find a route to the peak, and to herself.
The Wanderer is a new folk tale for our times. Rooted in the myths and fairytales of Armenia, it explores identity, heritage and diaspora through a universal story of longing – for community, for home, for self-understanding.
Created by two artists of Armenian heritage, the work fuses their distinct practices into a bold, multidisciplinary performance. It draws from Armenia’s storytelling traditions not as preservation, but as propulsion – treating folklore as something active and alive, capable of carrying memory into the present moment.
Taking inspiration from Hovhannes Tumanyan’s The Foolish Man, Silva and Abi reshape inherited stories through a contemporary, diasporic lens. Presented in both Armenia and the UK, The Wanderer becomes a living exchange between past and present, homeland and diaspora – affirming the enduring power of story to hold identity, difference and belonging in the same breath.
Two extraordinary artists are delving into Armenia’s rich myths and storytelling traditions – reimagining them for today with heart and beauty.
Stay tuned for more details on when and how you can experience their new creation.