“This will be a game.
A game of stories.
That we begin but do not yet know how to end.” 

The Mythmakers is a performative card game developed by four collaborators (Eszter Nemethi – Brussels/Cork, Pranav Patadiya – Bangalore, Satchit Puranik & Anitha Santhanam- Mumbai) who decided to come together around the need to re-imagine theatre for the children of the future at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, trying to both process and take advantage of the domestic yet global circumstances we found ourselves in.



The game has been developed in two phases. The first phase was a part of a four month international collaboration ‘Theatre for the Children of the Future’ supported by Kaaitheater, Brussels in early 2021. The result of this initial residency has been a start ofa methodology to work remotely (via zoom) with children and their adults around the ideas of the future towards the development of a card-game/performance that can beactivated by the adult/child groups at home.


The second phase of the deveopment was supported by the Arts Council of Ireland’s Agility Award grant (from Jan’22 – May’22) and the Living Commons, Cork. This has resulted in an online version of the game available for download. The game functions much like a boardgame but incorporates principles of play, conversational performance and theatre methodologies allowing the children and their adults to imagine and relate their fears, imaginations, wishes of the future.

It is designed for children aged 6 – 11 and it can be played in the group of 3 to 6 children with a facilitator (parent/teacher or the eldest one in the playing group!)

Eszter Némethi (1987, Budapest) is interested in the space between people, contexts and ideas and creating structures (practical, dramaturgical and spatial) that can be inhabited by others. When not inventing theatre for the children of the future she is developing a radio-theatre work Speak Like No One in Particular about the politics of listening or setting up the artistic-pedagogical practice the School of Magical Politics. She is co-curator of MOTA and a graduate of a.pass.

Pranav Patadiya lives and works in Bangalore and is a theatre and film maker. He is co-founder of the amateur theatre group Tanaririn, which has been actively doing Hindi and English plays for the last six years in Bangalore. Together with Satchit, he is a co-founder of Chikka Dodda Art Lab which looks at the intersection of art practices and activism. Their first film is the collage film Mard Humdard/Male Empath, an essayistic documentary about non-toxic masculinity in Hindi cinema.

Satchit Puranik is a multilingual writer, theatre maker and film maker. As a theatre maker, he made Karl Marx In Kalbadevi, Loitering, Ammi Jaan (with Anitha Santhanam), Family 81, Mahabharata (with Frascati Production) and he collaborates with Building Conversations. He is co-founder of Chikka Dodda Art Lab and works with MAVA – Men Against Violence & Abuse (Mumbai) and works as Senior Producer - Development with EndemolShine India.

Anitha Santhanam is a seasoned performer, educator and facilitator based in Bangalore working at the intersection of performing arts, therapy and healing. She is a two time awardee of the Charles Wallace India Trust scholarship (2007, 2012) through which she completed her training in physical theatre at LISPA, London. During her studies in London, she trained under Thomas Prattki, the founder director of LISPA, in a theatre-based approach to Jungian inner work as part of her pedagogical training. In Bangalore, she has worked with children in the age group of 3-12 from 2003 onwards, both as a physical theatre facilitator and as director of devised performances. During her stay in London, Anitha also trained with ARTIS, an organisation that specialises in integrated arts-in-education in schools and with JABADAO on developmental movement play for early years.