Those Nights of Magic and Myth

Immerse yourself in the power of stories with Chirine El Ansary’s free rewritings of cycles from The One Thousand and One Nights. In this 50-minute storytelling performance, Chirine El Ansary will weave a thread of magic and enchantment across one of the richest and evoking products of the human imagination and transport you through an endless set of intersecting narratives. Just like the interdisciplinary works of Katia Kameli, Chirine’s stories are unapologetically open-ended, polymorphic and absolutely spellbinding. Prepare to be enchanted.

Chirine El Ansary is an Egyptian storyteller and physical performer living between Egypt and France. Throughout her career Chirine has performed in the ancient buildings, streets and markets of Cairo, Damascus and Aleppo as well as in prisons, refugee camps, remote villages, forests and world-class cultural institutions. Her stories brought her to Sanaa, Nairobi, Zanzibar, Johannesburg, Rome, Naples, Rotterdam, Paris, Oslo, Shiraz, Warsaw, Constantine, Beirut, Lyon and London (Barbican Centre 2004/2005/2006, Rich Mix and Soho Theatre amongst others). Her work includes experimental movement solos, performance poetry and storytelling. Chirine is currently working on a new cycle of stories from The Arabian Nights.

The event coincides with the launch of Rewrite Your Story, a development scheme for emerging BAME storytellers wishing to create alternative narratives through oral literature. The scheme is run by Filotico Arts.