19:30-21:00 €19.50
GRAND OPENING: The Seer
Raphael Rodan, Sahand Sahebdivani and friends
A glimpse into the future… and, of course, a party!
When it gets dark and cold outside, it means one thing: it’s time to gather and warm our hearts with stories. This year, The Amsterdam Storytelling Festival invites you to meet The Seer — not as a fortune teller, but as a listener of truth. Blind to appearances and distractions, The Seer notices what others overlook, seeing what cannot be seen with ordinary eyes.
Through performances, talks, and workshops, the festival opens space for stories that dare to explore the uncomfortable, the unseen, and the unknown. From inner worlds to the edges of life and death, from visions to imagination… unspoken truths, looming disasters, secrets behind the masks. The Seer knows. Who dares to listen?
The Amsterdam Storytelling Festival 2026 will take place on November 6–15 at Podium Mozaïek, Amsterdam.
program 2026
friday 6 november
saturday 7 november
seeing the way out
We inherit more than blood: beliefs, wounds, stories and patterns that can shape a family, a community, a lifetime. Between revenge and forgiveness, becoming a father and growing older, can we see what holds us – and find a way out?
11:00-14:00 €60
WORKSHOP: The Storyteller’s Voice
Workshop leader: Giles Abbott
Find out how rich and resonant your voice can be!
14:15-15:10 €17
Bread Breath I Am
Mati Elias
For all the sourdough bread lovers, people going through menopause, and anyone in transformation
15:30-16:45 €15
Niemandsland: ontmoet de meestervertellers
Elsbeth Stoker en Dija Kabba
Een meeslepend journalistiek verhaal over waarschuwingen die niemand opvolgde
17:00-17:50 €7
TALK: The Evolution of Violence
Nature vs nurture: what brings out violence in humans?
19:00-19:50 €17
Lightning & Lies – the death of Balder
Giles Abbott
What if even the Gods cannot avoid fate?
19:30-20:45 €17
My Brother’s Keeper
Sahand Sahebdivani and Raphael Rodan, Grigor Kartashyan, Mary Aygetsy, Sjahin During | Stichting Seraphim
Who gets to live and who gets to die? A question as old as time…
22:00-23:15 €17
MÜNSTER
Aryeh Hasfari and Fer Rodil
A failed actor becomes a false prophet and makes a city applaud as it burns
sunday 8 november
vision of the ancient world
Enter a world of ancient myths and old tales, of seers and prophecies, gods and beasts, queens, rebels and journeys across strange lands and seas. A day devoted to the stories that have travelled through centuries – told, retold and kept alive from one generation to the next.
11:00-14:00 €60
WORKSHOP: Seeing without Sight
Peter Chand
Enhance your storytelling through the power of the senses!
16:45-18:15 €17
DAUNTLESS: Grace O’Malley, Pirate Queen
Debs Newbold
An epic story of the legendary Irish clan chief who was a rebel, a politician, an avenging hero and notorious female pirate.
19:15-20:05 €17
GOAT stories – a satire –
Nora Tinholt
A wild, surreal journey where puppetry, masks, movement and live music blur the line between human and animal
20:35-21:35 €17
Seen/Unseen
Peter Chand
Some things have to be seen to be believed and some things once seen, can never be unseen.
thursday 12 november
dutch donderdag
Op deze dag vieren we het Nederlands – de taal die geworteld is in de stad die we thuis noemen, haar geschiedenis met zich meedraagt en haar stem mede vormgeeft. Een dag vol voorstellingen, volledig in het Nederlands.
13:00-16:00 €60
Kennismakings workshop Storytelling
Jacqueline Korevaar
Leer de basis van storytelling!
19:15-20:25 €15
De Rat van Arras: gesprek met Adriaan van Dis en Jan Cleijne
Adriaan van Dis, Jan Cleijne, Sahand Sahebdivani
Van woorden naar beelden: hoe breng je een verhaal tot leven?
friday 13 november
seeing into the inner world
The inner world can be a place of wounds and silence, madness and imagination, struggle and unexpected beauty. A day of journeys beneath the surface, into the strange landscapes we carry within us.
18:10-19:10 €17
The Silence we Inherit
Terra Norihiro Terazawa
Hacking family history via live-coded audio/visuals to break the silence
21:00-22:15 €17
Making A Show of Myself
Mary Kate O Flanagan
A celebration of the power and magic of storytelling by a multi-award winning Irish raconteur.
saturday 14 november
roots into the future
We inherit stories, histories, beliefs and memories from those who came before us. What we carry from our roots – and what we choose to do with it – becomes part of the future we create.
11:00-14:00 €60
WORKSHOP: Being Bad with Piotr: The Power of Failure
Piotr Sikora
Learn to find joy in failing
14:45-15:35 €17
The Voice Note
Bahar Ara and Christian Johannes
A filmmaker spends two years recording voices of Iranian women to keep them from being forgotten
16:30-17:40 €17
WISDOM & OTHER FOLLIES
Sarah Liisa Wilkinson
Stories of the dangers and delights of knowing it all and not knowing better.
19:00-19:55 €17
BOTO Story of a Birth
Fred Raposo, Robin Plenio
Through humour, clowning and autofiction, this two-man show explores identity, adoption and Netherland’s colonial legacy
19:30-20:30 €17
A La Carte
Inbal Yomtovian | cie Golden Delicious
Each object is an anecdote, a piece of life, a story… choose which one you want to hear today!
21:15-22:15 €17
A True(?) Ghost(?) Story(?)
Billy Mullaney
Stories of being haunted by four generations of family history
sunday 15 november
death as a part of life
At the edge of life, fear and love, grief and humour, memory and imagination meet. A day of stories about facing death, walking beside those who are leaving, and the worlds that remain after they are gone.
11:00-14:00 €60
WORKSHOP: DRAWING THE AFTERLIFE
Jan Cleijne
What happens after you die? Let’s draw it!
15:00-16:00 €17
Homesick for Another World: a film unfolding in space
Mei Liu, Malaz Usta
Between lucid dreams and political oppression, bodies remember what history tries to erase.
15:30-16:45 €17
Emine: stories of a caged nightingale
Halil Çalışkan
A quest to understand his mother’s life
17:30-18:40 €17
While I have you
Dani Mora
Does Death have a sense of humor? A father and son search for beauty in unexpected places
19:15-20:15 €17
A La Carte
Inbal Yomtovian | cie Golden Delicious
Each object is an anecdote, a piece of life, a story… choose which one you want to hear today!
20:30-21:30 €17
Fer Is On A Deadline
Fer Rodil | Mezrab House of Creation
Fer is searching for the meaning of existence in the form of a personal performance full of humor
Looking for more? Explore our satellite program
October 23 – Dan Yashynsky and Annemarie Cabri, ‘Becomings: a cycle of danced stories’ (Mezrab)
October 28 – Mezrab Friday Storytelling Night with previews of the festival (with Raffi Feghali, Nora Fischer, Rory de Groot and Basak Layic)
November 4 – Mezrab Mythos night ‘Fools and tricksters’
November 7 – Mezrab Friday Storytelling Night with the theme ‘The Fool’
November 12 – Un|Earthed – Of Mothers, Grandmothers and Freedom – Inez Aponte (The Other Mezrab)
contact contact
subscribe to our mailing list!
contact info
Email: info@amsterdamstorytellingfestival.nl
For press and marketing questions:
Email: pers@amsterdamstorytellingfestival.nl
Address: we are located at Podium Mozaïek:
Bos en Lommerweg 191, 1055 DT Amsterdam
colofon
Artistic direction and program: Raphael Rodan & Sahand Sahebdivani
Business Director: Jasmijn Snoijink
Production team: Nadine Dijkstra
Marketing & Press: Irina Koriazova
Typography: deleatur
The Amsterdam Storytelling Festival 2026 partners:
