THERE is an 'underground' place in Leominster where the Cutters, the Rat and the Blobtoad dwell. It's a bit 'Lord of the Rings' down there - and a bit scary. The kids will love it writes Pete Blench.

Leominster's About Face Theatre Company has brought together a group of artists and theatre designers to transform an old building into a mythological world for local schoolchildren.

The Forbury Workshop in Church Street was built as a print works and used over the years as a factory, an antiques market and a kitchen and bathroom showroom.

It has just undergone its oddest-ever makeover.

There are passages apparently covered in grime and slime. A clutter of items - broken dolls, ropes, picture frames, parts of cars - adorn the walls; there is a gaudy, colourful ceremonial room with silk cushions and an organ and where joss sticks waft pungent fragrance; there is a rather chilling 'Hall of Whispers' where there are peepholes and odd messages. That part has an Alice in Wonderland feel to it.

This underworld is the setting for an ambitious venture by Leominster's About Face group - one of only a handful of theatre companies in the country to employ actors with learning difficulties.

Trogs and Cutters

In the autumn the company is staging The Cutters, a dramatic participatory workshop for primary school children commissioned from professional stage writer Therese Collins, exploring ideas about myths and legends.

Children will experience the history, mythology and culture of The Trogs and The Cutters who have been forever banished into the bowels of the earth to pay for their wrongdoings.

Set designer Andrew Purvin, currently director of the Fetch Theatre Company, heads up a design team that includes local artists Rozie Keogh and Susan Milne, as well as internationally renowned sculptor Andrew Logan.

About Face director, Jess Mackenzie said, "We are privileged to be working with such a talented artistic team who are creating this wonderful other world before our very eyes.

"The Cutters workshops will enable children to play their own part in a voyage of discovery, and to let loose their imaginations in a truly extraordinary visual environment that they will never have seen anything like before."

l School groups will be visiting The Cutters workshop from September to December. Jess Mackenzie can be contacted on 01568 616301.