Fairytales for Grown-ups: The Ramayana

Deep in the forest, Rama & Sita live in exile - eyes watch their every move, and the universe shimmers with illusion.

Epic comic strip meets ancient Indian myth as storyteller Emily Hennessey and virtuoso sitar player Sheema Mukherjee conjure up the vivid, wild and beguiling world of the Ramayana, shot through with bitter rivalry, wild battles, love, loyalty, and cosmic monkeys.

When his wife is kidnapped by a ten headed demon king and Rama lies helpless on the battlefield, it’s time for Sita’s little-known story to unfold. Expect the unexpected...

RUNNING TIME: 50mins + 50mins + interval (120mins total)

CONTENT:This performance may contain descriptions of violence, threat of sexual violence, kidnap, and beheading contextualised within a paradigm of mythic narrative, archetype and metaphor.

AGE: for adults (16+)

Livestream tickets also available

EMILY HENNESSY

Emily is a playful and dynamic performance storyteller with a great love of Hindu mythology. She has travelled over 10,000 miles across India and Nepal by train, bus, rattling rickshaw and rickety bicycle. She has lived and worked with a yak-herding family on the Tibetan plateau, studied Kathakali dance-drama in Kerala and spent many months at the Kattaikkuttu School in Tamil Nadu, learning from the children who perform stories from the Mahabharata through music, dance and song from the age of 4. Recent performances include the British Museum, Soho Theatre, Shakespeare’s Globe, Royal Opera House, Beyond the Border Storytelling Festival and Delhi Storytelling Festival. Emily has toured in India, Iceland and Japan and performed at venues and festivals across Europe. She is a founding member of the Pandvani108 ensemble.

SHEEMA MUKHERJEE

Sheema absorbed North Indian classical music and the western tradition side-by-side, studying sitar and Indian classical music under the tutelage of her uncle, the late Pandit Nikhil Banerjee and then with the late Ustad Ali Akbar Khan. Brought up between Britain and India, she has a rich background to draw on in her own compositions and collaborations. Today she is an established sitar player and composer; a regular in Transglobal Underground playing sitar and electric bass; a key member in The Imagined Village project; a formidable collaborator with internationally renowned artists from many genres, including Courtney Pine, Sir John Tavenor, Martin Carthy, Bobby Mcferrin, Boris Grebenshikov, Natacha Atlas, Noel Gallagher; Cornershop, Mercan Dede, the Bulgarian Folk singer Yanka Rupkina.