November 2026
Tamasha Tales: The Wanderer
Co-created by Silva Chobanyan and Abi ZakarianA new Armenian folk tale for our times.
Ara has travelled far from one home in search of another; somewhere she hopes to find 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.
Created by Silva Chobanyan and Abi Zakarian, two artists of Armenian heritage, The Wanderer is a multidisciplinary project weaving together film, storytelling and a collaborative tapestry that the audience can help create.
“Take the left path up the Mountain; it’s not been walked in over a century. They will welcome you. Don’t be afraid when they wake.”
The Wanderer explores identity, heritage and diaspora through a universal story of longing – for community, for home, for self-understanding.
Filmed against the vast openness of the Armenian landscape, twenty women hand-tear fabric into irregular patches (karkatan) and stitch them together. Each karkatan becomes a physical echo of memory; together, the fragments form an evolving patchwork, a living map connecting body, land and story.
After the screening, audiences are invited to stay and add to the patchwork, becoming part of the story. Materials will be provided.
There will be a post-screening Q&A with the co-creators on Fri 13 November.
Dates
Screening in English (ENG SUB) + Q&A
Riverside Studios, 101 Queen Caroline St, London W6 9BN13 Nov
Screening in Armenian (ENG SUB)
Riverside Studios, 101 Queen Caroline St, London W6 9BN14 Nov
Screening in English (ENG SUB)
Riverside Studios, 101 Queen Caroline St, London W6 9BN15 Nov
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.
Creative Team Armenia
Co-Creators: Silva Chobanyan & Abi Zakarian
Project Manager for NPAK: Mariam Aleksanyan
Translator: Nare Grigoryan
Poster Design: Amassia Niziblian
Camera Operators: Suren Arakelyan, Armen Virabyan, Yervand Gevorgyan
Drone Operator: Arevik Petrosyan
Sound Engineer: Dmitry Hovhannisyan
Video editing։ Aram Zurabyan
Assistant Director: Nanor Petrosyan
Photographer: Arevik Aleksanyan
Cast
Ara – Silva Chobanyan
Participants:
Marianna Ghazaryan
Anush Jaghinyan
Gayane Harutyunyan
Hasmik Babayan
Donara Manukyan
Suzanna Matevosyan
Nare Grigoryan
Sona Baghdasaryan
Hana Baghdasaryan
Satenik Ohanyan
Hasmik Mirzabekyan
Ani Umrshatyan
Hasmik Hovyan
Alberta Piroeva
Anna Khachyan
Ariadna Maksimovich
Shushanik Harutyunyan
Lusanush Balayan
Nune Ghazaryan
Meksida Harutyunyan
Mariam Aleksanya
Creative Team UK
Voice of Ara: Jessie Bedrossian
Voice Audio Director: Pooja Ghai
Production Sound Engineer: Jan Sigsworth
Video Editor: Adam Lewis
Producer: Bella Rodrigues
A project across two cities
Premiering in Yerevan at Armenian Center for Contemporary Experimental Art, audiences are invited to contribute their own karkatan, becoming part of the work itself. The patchwork then travels to London, where new voices and stories will be invited to continue shaping its form, transforming it into a shared, collective artwork.
The Wanderer is not just a performance – it’s 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.
Commissioned by Tamasha as part of the British Council’s Connections Through Culture Programme
