Reimagining Greek myths with immersive digital technology

Who better to reimagine Greek myths that tell the stories behind the constellations that shimmer above us than a trio of visionary creators, working with a crack team of creative luminaries! 

Last week we had the absolute pleasure of spending the day with two storytelling titans, Daniel Morden and Hugh Lupton, and the brilliant composer Sarah Lianne Lewis, currently Composer Affiliate with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales.  Daniel, Hugh and Sarah’s piece The Stars and their Consolations, reimagines the cosmic and human scales of Greek myths through vivid performance storytelling and spinetingling electro-acoustic music.

We spent the day together at CULTVR Lab in Cardiff, Europe’s first immersive arts venue, providing a space to play and experiment with digital arts, live performance and 360-degree cinema.  We tested all kinds of projection, animation and lighting to explore what they can bring to this piece, sampling imagery reminiscent of Dr Who, 2001: A Space Odyssey, and many other sci-fi and cosmic reference points, finishing up with something altogether different to play with in our next two days of R&D at Ffwrnes Theatre in Llanelli.

This was Adverse Camber’s first chance to play creatively with storytellers using this technology in a live performance context, and we were delighted to be guided by longstanding and brand new creative team members including Paula Crutchlow as Director, Digital Projection Advisor – Mauri Martin (CULTVR), Cara Hood – Lighting Designer, Gethin Stacey – Technical Manager and Producer – Naomi Wilds with Production Manager Nia Thomson.

Next up, we bring our experiments into a theatre space to play a bit more, and we’ll be sharing this with a few early audience members in December, as we make plans to tour the piece more widely next year.

The Stars and their Consolations was originally commissioned by Beyond the Border Wales International Storytelling Festival and this process has been funded by Arts Council Wales, Tŷ Cerdd.and Adverse Camber.