Wales Millennium Centre invites audiences to step inside internationally acclaimed works

Nation Cymru staff

A major new immersive storytelling season has been announced by Wales Millennium Centre, bringing a programme of internationally acclaimed experiences – from large scale multisensory works to a VR cinema – to Cardiff.

Opening in July and running until January, the season brings together award-winning experiences from artists whose work has premiered at Venice Biennale and Tribeca Festival, placing the Welsh capital in the network of international centres championing the future of immersive storytelling.

The programme is announced ahead of the inaugural Annwn Prize ceremony on 14 June – the first global award celebrating excellence in immersive storytelling, created by Wales Millennium Centre and produced with Crossover Labs. Following in 2029/30, construction plans are approved for a UK-first new performance space dedicated to immersive and experiential work with space for up to 500 seated and 750 standing; a direct response to what a leading national arts centre of the future looks like.

Today’s announcement features work from pioneering UK studio Marshmallow Laser Feast, acclaimed British artist collective ScanLAB Projects, Taiwanese theatre-maker Craig Quintero, Canadian XR director Chélanie Beaudin-Quintin and immersive music collaborators Funilab and DROELOE.

David Massey, Senior Producer, Creative Technology and Storytelling, Wales Millennium Centre said: “Immersive storytelling is one of the most exciting creative frontiers in the world right now and Wales Millennium Centre is a place where audiences can experience the very best of it.

“Together, these series of works explore how we connect – to ourselves, to each other and to the natural world – through stories designed to be experienced from the inside.

“The programme reflects Wales Millennium Centre’s growing ambition to create a home for internationally significant immersive work in Wales, connecting global artists with local audiences while opening up new possibilities for how stories are experienced and shared.”

On sale today, the first works from the season invite audiences to lose themselves in a series of wonderous, 360-degree, VR and multi-screen meditative artworks from two celebrated UK studios. These large-scale installations explore and challenge how we perceive the world prompting us to confront the immense force of nature.

Evolver by Marshmallow Laser Feast, 23 July – 30 August 2026, on sale now/age 10+/£8-12.50/Duration: 45 mins

Marshmallow Laser Feast’s Evolver drops audiences deep inside the landscape of the body, following the flow of oxygen through our branching ecosystem to a single ‘breathing’ cell. Through this transcendental narrative – guided by the voice of Academy Award-winning actor Cate Blanchett – it becomes clear that breath not only sparks life but also connects us to the natural world through the cycle of respiration.

Executive produced by Edward R. Pressman and Terrence Malick and featuring music from Radiohead’s Jonny Greenwood, Meredith Monk, Jóhann Jóhannsson, Howard Skempton and Jon Hopkins, Evolver blends cutting-edge immersive technology with deep listening meditation, science and storytelling, inviting audiences into a profound sensory exploration of connection, consciousness and interdependence.

Directed by Marshmallow Laser Feast, Evolver is an Atlas V, Pressman Film, Dirty Films, Marshmallow Laser Feast and Orange production. In association with Artizen.

Ideal for audiences curious about immersive art, mindfulness, nature and science.

Eleanor (Nell) Whitley, Managing Director of Marshmallow Laser Feast: “We are delighted to be presenting Evolver at Wales Millennium Centre and to be part of their growing investment in immersive storytelling. Evolver invites audiences to journey beneath the skin, to step inside the human body and experience, firsthand, how breath connects us all. Wales has a deep tradition of connecting people to the natural world through the arts, and we hope Cardiff audiences leave this exhibition feeling that connection more vividly than ever.”

FRAMERATE: Pulse of the Earth by ScanLAB Projects, 27 October 2026 – 10 January 2027, on sale now/suitable for all ages, under 16s must be accompanied by someone 18+/£5/Duration: 25 mins

Created by renowned UK artist collective ScanLAB Projects, FRAMERATE: Pulse of the Earth is an expanded cinema work, offering a glimpse into our rapidly changing world using multiple screens and an original, hypnotic soundtrack to help us process the effects of a landscape in flux.

Built from thousands of time-lapse scans of British landscapes, the work reveals patterns of growth, erosion, extraction and transformation unfolding across multiple screens and immersive soundscapes. The result is an intoxicating meditation on time, climate and humanity’s relationship with the natural world.

Combining art, architecture, science and data visualisation, FRAMERATE offers audiences an entirely new way of seeing the planet.

Suitable for families, climate, science and technology enthusiasts.

Matt Shaw, Director and Co-founder, ScanLAB Projects said: “We’re excited to bringing FRAMERATE: Pulse of the Earth to Wales Millennium Centre as our studio first show in Wales, but in a city I know and love having studied at the Welsh School of Architecture many years ago.

“FRAMERATE doesn’t try to lecture about the damage we are doing to our planet, instead we invite you to observe in another way. To think and feel in another time scale: geological time, seasonal time, tidal time. To contemplate change, and the pace of change.

“At times the piece is a celebration of the beating, pulsing rhythm all of life on earth, at time this rhythm is reaching too far, raving uncontrollably. At other moments the piece is a quiet forest bath meditation, and at others an ode to a landscape lost.”

Joining Evolver and FRAMERATE: Pulse of the Earth in the season with on-sale dates to follow are the first works in Wales Millennium Centre’s new VR cinema. Timed for performances to tie in with international arts festival, Llais, the pieces include:

Just for You Trilogy by Craig Quintero/Riverbed Theatre, 28 September – 11 October 2026, on sale soon/13+/Duration: 33 mins

Presented together for the first time as part of Wales Millennium Centre’s VR Cinema programme, Just for You Trilogy brings together three award-winning immersive films by Taiwanese theatre-maker and director Craig Quintero.

Combining All That Remains, Over the Rainbow and A Simple Silence – works premiered at Venice and Tribeca Film Festivals – the trilogy explores memory, mortality, longing and the fragile boundary between dream and reality. Drawing on Quintero’s internationally acclaimed theatre practice, the works create an intensely intimate relationship between audience and performer – where viewers are not simply witnesses to the experience, but part of it.

Recommended for adventurous theatre audiences, film lovers and audiences interested in thought-provoking storytelling.

The Art of Change by Funilab & DROELOE, 28 September – 11 October 2026, on sale soon/10+/Duration: 10 mins

The Art of Change is a deeply personal audio-visual VR journey exploring memory, identity and transformation across time and space.

Created by Italian VR artist Simone Fougnier, aka Funilab, and Dutch composer DROELOE, the work unfolds through voice memos sent between past, present and future selves, guiding audiences through shifting emotional and imagined landscapes. Entirely painted and animated in VR using Quill, the experience combines music, storytelling and immersive visual art to create a pioneering new form of musical experience.

Ideal for music fans, digital culture fans and younger audiences interested in immersive visual worlds and contemporary electronic music.

Bodies of Water by Chélanie Beaudin-Quintin, 28 September – 11 October 2026, on sale soon/10+/Duration: 10 mins

Premiered at the Venice International Film Festival, Canadian XR artist Chélanie Beaudin-Quintin’s Bodies of Water invites you to hold your breath and let yourself be transported and transformed by water in the company of curious individuals.

The piece explores the transformation of human bodies as they interact with water – a fluid and adaptable medium that simultaneously presents resistance. It takes you underwater for an immersive experience that unfolds an uncommon and otherwise inaccessible contemporary dance.

Perfect for dance audiences, visual art lovers and audiences looking for emotionally immersive experiences.

Haunts by Lucy Hammond and Tom Chetwode-Barton, 28 September – 11 October 2026, on sale soon/12+/Duration: 15 mins

The year is 2006, Tony Blair is Prime Minister, Twitter has just been launched, and young people are quickly getting used to a world where social media and technology are beginning to take hold. 16-year-old Morgan, voiced by Callum Scott Howells (It’s a Sin), is searching to understand where he belongs, his journey set against the backdrop of a community in Llanberis – a small town at the foot of Yr Wyddfa in Wales.

Directed by Tom Chetwode Barton and Lucy Hammond (Monoliths, Traitor) we are transported to a time when analog and digital worlds collide, sharing moments from Morgan’s life as he travels through this poetic rite-of-passage odyssey.

Created in collaboration with Wales Broadcast Archive and Museum of Youth Culture, Haunts is a single user VR experience that interweaves visual traces of landscape with archive footage and creative storytelling.

Featuring music by Welsh artists including Super Furry Animals, John Cale and High Contrast.

Haunts is a co-production between Wales Millennium Centre, Pilot Theatre and Dreaming Methods.

Perfect for ravers, small towners and audiences looking to lose themselves in 90s nostalgia.

Tickets for Evolver and FRAMERATE: Pulse of the Earth are on sale now.