BEN HAGGARTY

‘I was spellbound - I don’t use the word lightly - as Ben turned the austere lecture theatre around us
into a flickering cave of wonder...
If you have a chance to hear the tales which have shaped the dreams of humankind,
tales of the gods and monsters that haunt us still,
then sit down and listen.’
The Times (2000)

Since the early 1980s Ben Haggarty has been a proactive advocate of the art of professional performance storytelling and has played a key and influential role in the revival of the art form in the UK.


His initial training was as an ‘image maker’ with Welfare State International Theatre and then as a theatre director. He spent several years working with mime, masks and puppets before becoming a professional storyteller in 1981. Today Ben is a performer, a narrative consultant, a trainer and director of storytellers, a promoter and organiser of storytelling events and an advocate for storytelling in education, in the community and on stage.

‘Haggarty is a commanding presence ...
strong, in harmony with the speech of his body...’
The Times (2001)

A promoter of storytellers and storytelling
Ben organised the UK’s first International Storytelling Festival at Battersea Arts Centre in 1985, followed by two further festivals in 1987 and 1989 at Waterman’s Arts Centre and the South Bank Centre respectively. In 1987 he established the first performance based storytelling club in the country, the Crick Crack Club, which continues to this day, promoting the very best of performance storytelling and encouraging new artists. He co-founded Beyond the Border International Storytelling Festival and from 1993 to 2005 was the festival's Artistic Co-Director.

A performer, researcher and trainer
A master of improvisation, Ben is internationally respected for his playful and lively performances, and for his knowledge of stories and diverse narrative traditions. He has a working repertoire of over 250 folk tales, wonder tales, epics and myths, which he tells to all kinds of audiences, in all kinds of venues ranging from caves to concert halls. He has a particular passion for East European Wonder tales and for Bronze Age and early Iron Age Epic. He has several two or three hour long pieces based on Irish Mythology, such as ‘Midir and Eadoin’, ‘The Ildanach’ and ‘The Life and Loves of Fionn MacCumhaill’. His performances, including that of the epic, ‘Gilgamesh’, his version of ‘The Companion’ and his work on ‘Blacksmith’ stories have earned him international renown. Recent commissioned work includes ‘Beauty and the Beast’, ‘The Iron Man Kavad’, and ‘Frankenstein’. Ben performs solo, with other storytellers, with musicians and with artists from other disciplines.

‘... and what a story this one was - not a simple one of unwitting,
but a playful one that unravelled itself mischievously in Haggarty’s skilful telling...’
The New Statesman

In 1995 he co-founded The Company of Storytellers with colleagues Hugh Lupton and Sally Pomme Clayton, to take high quality storytelling performances to adult audiences. Through their work and workshops, this group has inspired several generations of storytellers to come forward in Britain and in Northern Europe.

Ben has worked with many major organisations such as The Barbican, The South Bank Centre, The National Theatre, English Heritage and Shakespeare’s Globe and for literature festivals including those in Hay-on-Wye, Ilkley and Cheltenham. He has worked extensively with the education departments of major museums, galleries and arts centres across the UK including the, the British Museum, the Natural History Museum, The Museum of London and the English National Opera.

Ben has been featured as guest storyteller, representing Britain, in over 45 International Storytelling festivals in 23 countries. His 20 year long commitment to the cause of International Storytelling was recently fêted at La Maison du Conte in Paris, where he devised a show alongside Master Storyteller, Abbi Patrix, entitled ‘Le Silence Existe’.

   See pictures from ‘Le Silence Existe’

Ben has been heard on numerous radio programmes, including Radio 4’s Kaleidoscope, Mid-Week, A Good Read, etc. He worked on the selection of the stories for Jim Henson’s ‘Storyteller series’ in 1985, and in 2001 was one of three storytellers featured in a 2-hour, in-depth documentary on the global storytelling revival made for ARTE television in France. Since 2001 Ben has been the official storyteller for Yo Yo Ma’s Silk Road Ensemble project. This work includes devising huge family concerts combining stories and music, for performances in vast venues such as New York’s Carnegie Hall, and most recently in Chicago's Millenium Park, to an audience of over 10,000; accompanied by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Yo Yo Ma, the Silk Road Ensemble and 500 school children playing percussion.

‘Haggarty has that wonderful, rare gift for drawing you into a narrative from the very first word
with such nimble description and crackling passion...
Haggarty and the Silk Road Ensemble cast a narrative spell that you didn't want to end...’
The Diamondback, Maryland (2003)

He is one of the world’s shrewdest directors of storytellers and a much sought after teacher, leading numerous courses in the UK and abroad, in Scandinavia, Holland, Germany and Canada. Over a three-year period he worked with 32 students from Britain and Europe at his ‘Centre for the Research and Development of Traditional Storytelling’ (CRDTS). In 2007 Ben was made Honorary Professor of Storytelling at Berlin's the University of the Arts. During the 1990’s Ben made 3 field-trips to research epic singing traditions in Northern and Central India, as well as in Kazakhstan and the Kyrgyz republic. In 1985 he received Arts Council funding to study the storytelling revival in North America. Ben is the British Council’s Literature Department special advisor on storytelling.

‘Haggarty’s telling is an adroit mix of the imposingly epic and the reassuringly rhythmic,
tempered by a twinkle that admits to the story’s heightened nature without mocking it...’
The Times (2006)

An educator and interpreter
Alongside his public performance work, Ben works in many educational and community contexts. He is amongst the small number of storytellers who, in the 1980s, pioneered the use of storytelling in diverse contexts ranging from schools, libraries, museums and galleries to young offenders institutions and homes for the elderly. Here, within both formal and informal education, Ben uses performances, storytelling and story-making workshops, and story-collection work with students of all ages, from pre-school to lifelong learners. From 1987 - 1992 he was a consultant to the Schools Curriculum Development Council, National Oracy Project devising working models for classroom storytelling, which have now become established as best practice. He continues to participate in consultations regarding the teaching of ‘speaking and listening’ in schools.

‘Spectacular workshop ... simply one of the best experiences the kids could have had,
I’ve never seen them so focused or on task.’
Teacher, Dewditch School (2004)

‘Holding a large group of HMI spellbound for so long is an achievement in its own right,
but your presentation had a richness which we all appreciated.
Your messages linked extremely well with our discussions of the National Literacy Strategy.’
HM Chief Inspector for English and Drama, OFSTED

CCC HOME PAGE