AN immersive theatre experience is set to tell the true stories of local soldiers from South East Cornwall on the frontlines of the First World War.

Audience members of The Trench Bodmin will literally follow in the footsteps of recruits from the Duke of Cornwall’s Light Infantry as they take on the identity of a real local soldier.

Participants will ‘enlist’ at Bodmin Keep, boarding a steam train which will take them to experience some of the chaos and tension of the frontline in a replica trench.

Upon their return to Cornwall’s Regimental Museum, audiences will discover the fate of the soldier whose life they have briefly inhabited.

Professional and amateur actors will bring the event to life, not only during the main experience, but also through four short plays to be staged in the attic spaces of Bodmin Keep.

The production is ‘not for the fainthearted’ says company Collective Arts, which is known for its creation of large-scale, outdoor theatrical experiences.

Collective Arts is working together with the Bodmin and Wenford Railway, Cornwall Regimental Museum and students from Bodmin College to stage The Trench, which will run from Monday, June 18, to Sunday, July 15.

Participants must be aged 12 or over and the performance is not suitable for those with limited mobility.

Students from Liskeard School and Community College have worked with set designer Alan Munden to produce a large-scale art work for the production.

The students spent three days during the half-term holiday learning about the processes and techniques of working on a large scale for the theatre.

Eight portraits of soldiers were the result, and these have been used to clad the trench that has been created in a field at Lanhydrock.