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 Center 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.

The Wanderer

Co-created by Silva Chobanyan and Abi Zakarian  

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. 

Set within the magical, mythical landscape of Armenia, The Wanderer explores identity, heritage and diaspora through a universal story of longing and belonging. A group of women hand-tear fabric into raw, irregular patches known as karkatan, before stitching them together into an evolving patchwork tapestry. Each piece becomes a physical echo of memory, carried across generations and connecting body, land and story with Ara’s voice heard as an inner monologue. 

Rooted in the myths and fairytales of Armenia, The Wanderer is a new folk tale for our times. Co-created by Armenian visual artist Silva Chobanyan and British Armenian playwright Abi Zakarian, the work fuses their distinct practices into a bold and multidisciplinary performance that weaves together text, video performance and live participation. Drawing inspiration from Hovhannes Tumanyan’s The Foolish Man, Silva and Abi reimagine Armenian folklore through a contemporary, diasporic lens. 

Premiering on 14 August 2026 at the Armenian Center for Contemporary Experimental Art in Yerevan, audiences are invited to contribute their own karkatan, becoming part of the work itself. The London presentation will take place at Riverside Studios in London this autumn. 

Commissioned by Tamasha and supported by the British Council’s Connections Through Culture Programme and the Paul Hamlyn Foundation

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 such as metal, wood, integrated with fabric and yarn to weave evocative and 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.