The door is open at St Petroc’s, where Bodmin born myths awaken through spoken word, suspended artwork, live shadow play & tales cast in projection.

For those who stepped into the shadows the first time and those yet to enter, the myths are waking again but not as you remember them.

Step inside St Petroc’s Church and enter the world of Shadow Lounge: The Re-Awakening, an immersive promenade experience built around three original Bodmin-born myths.

Wearing wireless headsets, audiences move through the church in timed groups as spoken word and bespoke soundscapes arrive close to the ear. Suspended paper-cut artworks hover overhead, coconut and lavender drift through the space, shadows gather in unexpected places and the familiar architecture of St Petroc’s slowly slips into something more otherworldly.

At the heart of this re-awakening are two new layers of magic. Live shadow play brings figures from the myths to life, while original animation and projection allows images to escape the paper and travel across the ancient stone of the church.

This is not storytelling held at arm’s length. It is something to move through and experience all the senses, a world where story, place and imagination meet in the dark.

After the first Shadow Lounge, one audience member said: “It sent me to another world.”

This October, that world opens again.

Created by Rob Mennear / GRIT Productions, with Matthew Thomason (composer), Robbie Gillet (spoken word artist), Jess Marlton (fine paper-cutting artist), Arlo Anwin (animator), Christian Balistrari (projection mapper), Meier Williams (visual artist), Paul Joines (technician) and live performers Olivia Walton and Hannah Jacobb.