A genuinely ‘fully immersive’ experience – featuring swimming in your own bathroom, water-themed recitals and a waterborne end of life journey – is lined up for a new season of entertainment.

Lancaster Arts welcomes you to a very exciting and diverse season of theatre, concerts and extraordinary events happening on and off the Lancaster University campus from this week.

The theme for 2021 is Water, a resonant theme for Lancaster - close to Morecambe Bay and surrounded by rivers and tidal estuaries - it also has both a local and global relevance as a result of climate change.

The precautions and social distancing introduced in the autumn season will continue as necessary to provide a safe and comfortable experience for all.

Swimming Home, May Contain Food, Petrichor, Water, Myths, and Change and Waterborne, are just some of the shows to come.

Swimming Home (26th April - 6th May) opens the season. Silvia Mercuriali’s unique online aural show features the audience as the swimmer. Swimming Home brings a fully immersive theatre experience into your home, transforming your bathroom into a filmic water-world.

Standing in your bathroom, wearing a swimming costume, goggles and some headphones, you are led through a journey of rediscovery of your relationship with water as you prepare to enter your bath (or shower).

May Contain Food (7th May - 16th May) is introduced by choreographer Luca Silvestrini and composer Orlando Gough, May Contain Food is Protein’s popular and witty piece of dance and music theatre inspired by social occasions and life at mealtimes.

When you book you’ll be sent a recipe card to create your own tasting menu (can be as simple or as adventurous as you like) for this immersive dance show.

Post-show Live Q&A 7th May 2021: Follow Lancaster Arts on Instagram & Facebook to find out the latest updates for our Live Q&A stream with Luca Silvestrini and Jocelyn Cunningham.

Petrichor VR (20th May) is for the digitally curious: a Matchbox production by Thickskin, created by Jonnie Riordan, Jess Williams & Ben Walden and in partnership with Lancaster University Library and The Dukes.

Petrichor is a dystopian reality, where every moment is muted, managed and monochrome. Nothing bad ever happens. Nothing good does either. Excitement and happiness have been traded for a world without pain and suffering.

Combining live-action theatre and animation, Petrichor is a brand new, one-of-a-kind immersive Theatre in VR experience exploring the hopes and fears of our current and future existence.

“The University Library is delighted to welcome Petrichor as the first event in its newly opened extension,” says Lancaster University’s Assistant Director Academic Services Phil Cheeseman.

“This immersive performance blurs the boundaries between virtual and physical worlds and is a fantastic introduction to our vision for what the Library will offer in the future.”

Water, Myths, and Change: (5th June) features Oboist Michal Rogalski and pianist Petr Limonov, who engage in an artistic dialogue that explores the diverse worlds of Debussy, Schumann, Rachmaninov and Britten in a water-themed recital.

At a time when many of us have been reflecting on our lives and on meaning within them, these composers’ meditations on water, the element most essential to life are timely and refreshing. This recital will be perfect for the intimate setting of Lancaster Priory.

Waterborne (14th - 27th June) Lancaster Arts welcomes back French & Mottershead to present Waterborne from their internationally acclaimed Afterlife series. Afterlife transports the listener to places none of us can ever fully know, connecting us with stories of what happens to our body after death. The influence of different environments on the body are experienced in a lyrical and vivid way throughout the series – Waterborne follows a body’s journey in water. Due to ongoing restrictions, Lancaster Arts is making Waterborne free to access.