Immersive Ancient Worlds
Ancient Power
Immersive Ancient Worlds
Rub shoulders with the Gods of Yore at Events Full of Ancient Wonders
Ancient Greece and Egypt, the Tudors, Shakespeare — any myth or moment in history, built as a world your guests can step inside.
An immersive ancient world is a moment in history rebuilt at full size: the setting constructed, the cast dressed and rehearsed, and the detail researched rather than approximated.
Worlds We’ve Already Created
Fifteen years building worlds out of history.
- A wedding in OxfordshireA Winter Garden dressed as a Greek olive garden, with Perseus among the guests. 800 of them.
- A private event“A Midsummer Night’s Dream” staged in a real wood, with a cast of 20 in the trees.
- A themed dinnerAncient Rome and antiquities, down to the flowers on the table.
Ancient Power
We are the gatekeepers to history, fusing experience and storytelling in epic proportions
Time travel with us to ancient worlds and discover how we would adventure with Perseus as he defeats the mighty Medusa in Ancient Greece and a unique spin on the Classic ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ as Shakespeare would have wanted it played out.
The History of Immersive Storytelling
Go On An Immersive Adventure
Immersive storytelling is hardly a new fad. This concept is as ancient as humanity itself, born the moment our ancestors realised, “Hey, life is kind of...stressful. Let’s pretend we’re doing something way cooler.” From that spark of inspiration, a need for escapism emerged.
Whether it was hunting for a mythical beast, embarking on a quest for treasure, or just trying to outwit a mammoth that looked a little too hungry, the human imagination has always craved a good story to get lost in. We can imagine our ancestral Events Mill neanderthal colleagues still being the social butterflies back then.
This was the first VR headset: a roaring fire, some sound effects courtesy of the crickets, and a storyteller with a flair for the dramatic, egging the likes of Perseus on and betting he couldn’t defeat the scary Medusa.
The garden shown here The Winter Garden, Waddesdon Manor.
Clash Of The Titans
An Immersive Throwback to Ancient Greece
Imagine the scene: ancient humans gathered around a fire, someone dramatically gesturing toward the shadows, whispering a tale of mystical creatures lurking just beyond the light. Their listeners are probably either terrified or eyeing the storyteller with the universal look of “really?” – and yet, they’re hooked.
The room shown here A Winter Garden dressed as a Greek olive garden: vines, olives and grapes threaded through the ironwork, a constellation wall along one side, and Perseus moving among the guests. Installed for a wedding in Oxfordshire.
Go All In Or Not At All
Luxury Global Events
Fast forward a few thousand years, and escapism has become a little more sophisticated. Ancient Greeks, for example, were practically pioneers in immersive experiences. They didn’t just tell you about gods; they built temples, staged plays, and threw themselves into the stories. They created characters like Zeus and Hera, who had more family drama than a soap opera, and even threw in some Olympic-level sports to keep things interesting.
Just imagine, an immersive experience all about Ancient Greece, a re-telling of Clash of The Titans where heroes and Gods collide, the Kraken unleashed, and you discover the history of Greece in an epic tale of mysticism. This is history, creativity and immersive storytelling that Zeus would be proud of. Then, if they weren’t busy sacrificing to the gods, they’d get to hear tales of heroes adventuring across mythical lands—because, really, who doesn’t want a front-row seat to a demigod brawling with a cyclops?
A Midsummer Night’s Dream
“Love’s stories written in love’s richest books. To fan the moonbeams from his sleeping eyes.”
Dinner in the forest Long tables set in woodland under festoon light, with characters performing in the trees around them. A conceptual interpretation of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” for a private event.
The Ancient Worlds of
A Midsummer Night’s Dream
Imagine stepping into an enchanted forest where reality blurs into a world of fairies, mischief, and magic. In this immersive adaptation of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, audience members are invited to wander through a mystical woodland, encountering characters from the play as they perform scenes all around them. As you follow Oberon, Titania, and Puck through winding paths and hidden clearings, you’re pulled into their tangled love spells, mistaken identities, and comic misunderstandings. Fairy lights twinkle in the trees, and ethereal music fills the air, creating an atmosphere where guests are both spectators and participants in Shakespeare’s playful, whimsical universe.
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The scene beside this A Shakespearean Feast in The Woods, Hampshire.
Setting The Scene, With Olfactory Design
A fully ethereal, constructed and enchanted woodland where reality fades, and a world of fairy magic, trickery, and whimsy takes over. In this immersive ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’, the “theatre” is a sprawling forest where every tree, leaf, and shadow seem to breathe with its own life, transporting you deep into the heart of Shakespeare’s play. As you walk along winding, moss-covered paths, the scent of damp earth and wildflowers fills the air.
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Scenography, Our Specialism
The scenography is layered with intricate details, from tangled vines and blooming wildflowers to scattered props that hint at stories unfolding nearby—a broken goblet here, a love letter there. Each clearing is transformed into a distinct set: Titania’s bower is a dreamy cocoon of cascading flowers and silk-draped branches, fragrant with lavender and jasmine; Oberon’s domain feels darker, with rough-hewn tree stumps, twisted roots, and the faint smell of smoke.
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Production Design and Sound scaping
The soundscape is an intricate tapestry of rustling leaves, distant flute melodies, and subtle whispers that drift on the breeze, blurring the line between music and nature. Ethereal, dreamlike tunes float through the air, hinting at unseen fairies flitting through the branches above. You are completely enveloped through a complex spiderweb of sound.
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Character Development
You, as additional cast members in this immersive experience are not merely an observer but an essential part of the story, encouraged to wander, to linger, and to lose yourself in Shakespeare’s whimsical universe. The forest itself seems alive, with textures you can feel—soft moss underfoot, rough bark, cool stones—and scents that deepen the atmosphere, from the earthy smell of damp soil to the faint aroma of wild herbs.
One World, In Full
A lock-in, overnight adventure surrounded by the relics of History
In the heart of London’s Natural History Museum, you are swept into an 8-hour, after-dark odyssey where exhibits awaken and time unravels. From roaring dinosaurs to distant galaxies, each room becomes a live chapter, brought to life through immersive theatre, scent, touch, and taste. This isn’t just dinner. It’s history, alive. It’s a Night at The Museum.
The story that follows Designed for a fully immersive ‘A Night at The Museum’ for 50 guests at the Natural History Museum, South Kensington, London.
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Scene One
“The Awakening”
Beneath the towering skeleton of Hope in Hintze Hall, the experience begins. Shadows stretch. Music hums low. A ghostly curator from another era welcomes you into a world where relics stir and history breathes; she explains the “rules” of this unusual experience and invites you to follow her into the shadows for a journey through history. The scent of old archives fills the air. This is no ordinary experience. This is the beginning.
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Scene Two
“Land of The Giants”
In the Dinosaur Gallery, the ground rumbles. Roars echo. Shadows of giants sweep across the walls. Led by a dusty “palaeontologist,” you navigate a prehistoric jungle thick with the scent of earth, moss, and pine. Stay on the path, your bracelet will buzz when danger’s near. Something ancient is watching.
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The building above Exterior of The Natural History Museum, private events.
Scene Three
“The Pharaoh’s Banquet”
Bathed in golden light and the scent of frankincense, guests dine as hieroglyphs whisper across the walls. An Egyptian priestess blesses the feast in ancient tongue, honouring gods long past. Spices, honey, and incense fill the air, as scented linen napkins reveal sacred symbols beneath your fingertips. This is no meal – it’s a ritual.
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Scene Four
The Medieval World: “Feast of the Ages”
From one world to another, we step into a medieval banquet in the Minerals Gallery, aglow with candlelight, draped in tapestries, and alive with chants. A knight recounts epic battles, a jester spins tales and tricks, and the scent of woodsmoke lingers in the air. With leather-bound menus and wooden chalices in hand, you’re invited into Medieval history to dine like royalty in a world long past.
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Scene Five
The Space Age: “Stardust and Beyond”
In Earth Hall, beneath drifting planets and starlit skies, we float through space. Blue and violet light shimmers. Interstellar winds whisper. A futuristic “astronaut” shares stories from the edge of the cosmos. Metallic scents fill the air, and smooth meteorite stones in your palm keep you grounded as you journey through the stars.
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Scene Six
“The Future of the Planet”
Inside the Darwin Centre’s lush, futuristic greenhouse, nature meets technology. Birds sing, drones hum, and a passionate conservationist calls for action in a world on the brink. Surrounded by vines, and soil-scented air, guests are challenged to rethink their role in Earth’s story – and its survival.
The table above A flocked classical bust set down into the flowers as the centrepiece, with the glassware around it. Set for a dinner themed on ancient Rome and antiquities.
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The trio beside this String trio, Natural History Museum.
Scene Seven
Farewell and Reflection
Guests are led back to the main hall for a final toast under the whale skeleton. Here, the curator reappears, thanking them for traveling through time and urging them to remember that they are part of this ongoing history. With a final round of “whale song” and ambient sounds, the guests leave, having journeyed through time, space, and the depths of the museum in a single unforgettable experience.
Scene 1 of 7
From Gods to Superheroes
Echoing Mysticism in Live Events
And of course, the online world has created entire realms to explore, where people can escape from the monotony of their daily lives—because let’s be real, sometimes the 9-to-5 grind could really use a few flying horses and epic sword fights.
Today, immersive storytelling has evolved to include theme parks, conventions, VR headsets, and dinner theatre, where you can enjoy a meal with your favourite characters...assuming your favourite characters happen to be Greek Gods who are constantly at each other’s throats (such bad table manners.)
Or
Go Bespoke and we’ll work with you to create a new theme based on your brief.
So, whether you’re donning a headset, throwing on a costume, or taking part in the ultimate immersive adventure, remember: immersive storytelling has been around for ages. It’s our way of saying, “Real life? Thanks, but no thanks. I’d rather hunt for Poseidon’s trident.” Because every great adventure begins with a spark of imagination—and maybe, just maybe, a little bit of escapism around a fire.
What It Costs
The wonderful thing about immersive, and especially Ancient World design, is that you could invest upwards of £20,000 on an intimate dinner in a forest as if you’re rubbing shoulders with a Shakespearean scribe whilst feasting on 16th Century-inspired plates of food, or you could splash out and spend millions and build Zeus’s Mount Olympus in the clouds for your 50th, with a fully customised amusement park themed on the Gods. And the best bit is, we can do both.
- A piece of itfrom £5,000
An intimate dinner among the trees, from £20,000.
- Theme, design and entertainmentfrom £50,000
A period researched, designed and performed around your guests.
- A fully immersive world£500,000 upwards
A myth or a moment in history rebuilt whole, wherever we put it.
What Happens Next
How it works
- 1
Enquiry
Send us the date, the number of guests and the shape of the idea.
- 2
Consultation
We meet to discuss your plans and to fully understand your vision and what you want your experience to feel like on the day. Practical details are also discussed.
- 3
Development
Our in-house creative, design and planning team fully develop a response in line with your brief.
- 4
The answer
We will tell you honestly what it takes to make it, and what it will cost to make it well.
Practical
Before the first stone is laid
- Built, not hired
The set, the props, the costume and the making are ours, done for this story rather than pulled off a shelf. That is why it holds up when somebody walks right up to it.
Who makes it - How long it takes
Twelve months or more where the research and the making are the work. Six to twelve months for a single world somewhere we control. Under six months is a different conversation, and we will tell you honestly what is still possible.
Lead time - Every dietary requirement
Wherever there is a table, there is a kitchen. Every cuisine and every dietary requirement is accommodated, with stringent processes for allergens and cultural preferences, and every request taken extremely seriously.
Allergens · cultural · every cuisine
Our annual event sees a raft of high-level executives from all over the world visit London for a few days for presentations and socials, and is traditionally finished with a ‘once in a lifetime’ experience. Having Christopher on board from the offset for the finale was probably one of the best decisions we have ever made.
What a wonderful journey it was working alongside Christopher and The Events Mill. From start to finish the creative genius in Christopher continued to impress, leaving me very much looking forward to the next event we join forces on.
As featured in
Questions
Asked before every one of these
What is an immersive Ancient world?
A themed event built around a story from history or myth. Guests do not watch it from a seat; they walk into it. The place, the cast, the food, the sound and the scent all belong to the same world.
Which periods of history can you build?
Ancient Greece and Egypt, the Tudors, Shakespeare, the medieval world, the prehistoric. It is the historic element that matters, not the location.
Is it a dinner or a piece of theatre?
Usually both. A Night at The Museum runs as seven scenes across eight hours, with a five-course menu where each course is served in the world it belongs to.
Do we bring the story, or do you write it?
Either way works. Some clients arrive with the story already, a play or a myth or a period they love. Others arrive with a brief, and we build the theme from that.
Do you design and build it yourselves?
Yes. Design and production are in-house.
Where can you produce it?
Anywhere. The work shown on this page was built in a Winter Garden, in real woodland, and at a private dinner table.
What does it cost?
It depends entirely on the scale. An intimate dinner in a forest is upwards of 20,000 pounds. A world built from nothing, on the scale of a themed amusement park, runs into millions. We do both.
Discover Other Immersive Worlds
Feeling Inspired?
“The stars around the beautiful moon hide their shining faces when she, in all her fullness, lights up the earth with silver.”
Sappho, Fragment 34