Performer
Current shows
for adults
The Winner Takes it All
Performance storytelling and music by Pandvani108.
Tricksters, deities, strange childhoods, complicated marriages and cosmic crises collide in the hands of the ever-exuberant Pandvani108 ensemble! Raoul Neumann (Trans Siberian March Band), Sheema Mukherjee and Rav Neiyyar (Transglobal Underground) deliver stunning soundtracks for stories performed by the fabulous Ben Haggarty, Emily Hennessey and Steph Brittain.
Expect high comedy, wild drama, punked pop, divine deception, and all things bloody beautiful as this popular troupe summon the ancient gods and monsters of Greece, Ireland, India, Japan, Iceland and more – mashing-up myth to ask what it is that we really, really want…
‘playful, powerful, dynamic…a highlight of this year’s festival’
BEYOND THE BORDER FESTIVAL
‘Stellar!’
SMUGGLERS FESTIVAL
‘Phenomenal’
WONDERFUL BEAST
Fairytales for Grown-ups | Grim Grimms
Performance storytelling by Ben Haggarty. Music by Sherry Robinson.
The fairytales collected by the Brothers Grimm are like half remembered rituals – full of vitality, meaning and inklings, the importance of which remain tantalisingly out of reach. Gothic, stark and beguiling – Ben Haggarty ventures into the wild side of fairytale to haul four lesser-known Grimm tales out of the nursery and back into the dark and full-blooded realm of fairytales for grown-ups.
This performance is brimful of forbidden doors, magical transformations, betrayal, comeuppance, and talking skulls.
‘This is the fresh dose of magic you need in your life’
EVERYTHING THEATRE
‘Truly captivating’
BRITISH THEATRE GUIDE
Atalanta
Performance Storytelling by Ben Haggarty
Renowned for reading between the lines of Greek Mythology, Ben Haggarty brings to the stage a fierce tale of a remarkable virgin hunter and devotee of Artemis who sure as hell doesn’t want to have anything to do with men. Spend a moonlit night in the company of wild women, cocksure warriors and gods unleashed.
This is Greek Myth how it should be – dark, magical, provocative and contemporary.
‘a tour-de-force of storytelling’
Remote Goat
Mr Sandman | Bringer of Dreams and Nightmares
Performance storytelling by Ben Haggarty
Via freak-show and moonshine bar, Ben Haggarty takes an alarming journey through the ambivalent mythology of the Sandman and creates a world where imagination, dream, nightmare and reality all meet.
This Fringe First Award winning performance flirts with Americana, draws on urban legend, fairytale, myth and folklore, and pays oblique homage to Heinrich Von Kleist, ETA Hoffman, Hans Andersen and Nick Cave.
Dark, unsettling and intensely magical.
‘Often beautiful, sometimes frightening…2 hours of storytelling genius’
Fringe Review
‘intense and alarming…screw up your courage and go’
The Times
Gilgamesh
Performance storytelling by Ben Haggarty. Music by Jonah Brody
Over 3,500 years after this ancient Sumerian epic was first etched into clay tablets, world renowned storyteller Ben Haggarty, and multi-instrumentalist Jonah Brody, bring Gilgamesh to the stage in an extraordinary, contemporary and psychedelic performance of one of the oldest stories in the world. The result is a powerful, passionate, fast paced epic, laced with quick-witted humour.
‘VIVID, RICH AND IMPOSINGLY EPIC’
Dominic Maxwell, The Times
‘I WAS SPELLBOUND – I DON’T USE THE WORD LIGHTLY’
Erica Wagner, The Times
Fairytales for Grown-ups | The Grateful and the Dead
Performance storytelling by Ben Haggarty
Allow Ben Haggarty to lure you into a full-blooded fairytale for grown-ups. Dark, beautiful and startling by turn, this is a story of dreams, initiations and the repayment of debts, complete with epic journeys, bizarre marriages & strange companions. Fierce, fast paced, and unashamedly magical. (other shows in this series are also available)
‘The doyen of Storytellers’
REMOTE GOAT
‘Captivating! Everything a fairytale should be’
EVERYTHING THEATRE
for families
The Devil, the Tsar and Three Dry Biscuits
Performance storytelling by Ben Haggarty
A soldier determined to outwit death learns that a good game of cards can get you into, and out of, a whole lot of trouble! Ben Haggarty embarks on his rumbustious version of a famous Russian tale of outwitting and trickery. Scary, enchanting & comedic by turn, this tale of wonder comes complete with magical sacks, strange encounters, wild gambles and devilish adventure.
For all bold and brave children aged 8+ and their grown-ups.
‘Spectacular … simply one of the best experiences the kids could have had, I’ve never seen them so focused’
Teacher
Maria Morevna! (Or how Prince Ivan got himself a horse)
Performance storytelling by Ben Haggarty
When Ivan meets warrior princess, Maria Morevna, he has a lot of catching up to do…and inadvertently releasing Maria’s arch enemy isn’t a particularly good start. In this romper-stomper fairytale everything happens in threes; immortal monsters roam; super-witch Baba Yaga is a horse wrangler, and our hero Ivan will get himself both into, and out of, an awful lot of trouble.
Expect wild adventure, epic quests, and things only made possible by a hefty dose of magic for everyone 7-107.
‘storytelling with Ben is not just goldilocks and the three bears – it’s so much better’
Yr4 child Minchinhampton School
Jack and the 12 Dancing Princesses
Performance storytelling by Ben Haggarty
A widowed king with twelve daughters has an alarming mystery on his hands and there’s only one person who can solve it. Fairytale-teller extraordinaire, Ben Haggarty, tells a story brimful of adventure, broken shoes, jewelled forests, strange disappearances, enchanted mirrors, and magic that’s stronger, stranger and more startling than you’ve ever heard before.
For everyone aged 5-105
‘Haggarty tells his stories with enormous gusto & relish’
THE INDEPENDENT
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