Fairytales for Grown-ups: Pandvani 108-Epic Jukebox

The stage is set for a high voltage mythological mash-up, as four storytellers tell six episodes of six epics, with music by Jonah Brody and Hannah Sanders.

Pandvani108’s invasion of Camden’s Forge Venue is set to bring the likes of Ganesh, Loki, Zeus, Shiva, Freya and Fionn MacCumhaill alive and kicking, right to the heart of the Forge bar.

Inspired by a 3,000 year old Indian epic-singing tradition, this Anglo-Swedish ensemble combine stories, sticks, music and song to turn on the epic jukebox and bring us a wild night of unbowdlerised global myth and epic in untamed short form style. Gods, monsters, giants, warriors & divas from Greece, Ireland, the Scandinavian North, the Indian heat and beyond, are all hauled centre stage.

Pandvani108 exploded onto the storytelling scene in 2011 and have been taking festivals, theatres and street corners by storm ever since – ripping up the rule book at Beyond the Border, smuggling myths into Secret Garden Party and Smugglers Festival, luring revellers into the enchanted woods of Bestival, conjuring up gods in East and West End theatres, and even bewitching betting shop punters at 11am on Ramsgate high street...
Far from sedate spoken word – this is more like organised chaos with added deities. Brash, exuberant, and with more experimental excitement than you can shake a stick at…this is the Short Myth Massive – live and irresistibly direct!

‘playful & powerful – a highlight of this year’s festival’ Beyond the Border Festival


Pandvani108 ensemble members include international performance storytellers Dominic Kelly, Emily Parrish, Ben Haggarty and Mikael Oberg, and musicians Jonah Brody (of Sam Lee's band) & Hannah Sanders (of Dunn Family fame). Pandvani108 are associate company of The Crick Crack Club.

This wildly experimental group combines the skills of international storytellers and musicians to produce vivid, highly engaging, adrenaline filled performances of myth and epic using a technique that combines a storyteller; a ‘Ragi’ (whose interjections – both serious and comedic - spur the narrative ever onwards), and a backing band. Their signature Jukebox shows render bite sized chunks of these complex narratives accessible and entertaining for public adult audiences – without relying on any prior knowledge of the material or the cultures from which it comes. Allied by their mutual conviction of the need for artistic experimentation, Pandvani108 have created a startling and bold new storytelling form described by audiences as ‘inspirationally brilliant’, ‘an unquestionable highlight’, ‘stunning’ and ‘totally addictive’.

Pandvani108 have created a vibrant, new performance form which renders bite sized chunks of myth and epic accessible and entertaining for public adult audiences – without relying on any prior knowledge of the material or the cultures from which it comes. Not only that, but these performances feel like they could happen just as easily on a theatre formal stage, as in a fruit and veg market, or the battlements of some remote castle.