Award-winning, Cheltenham-based theatre company Moth Sanctuary Productions is celebrating five years of its original horror podcast 'Penny Dreadfuls from the Moth Sanctuary' at Cheltenham Literature Festival this October 2025.
The dreadful duo bring an exclusive preview of the brand-new season to the infamous Lit Crawl on Saturday 11 October 2025 as part of Cheltenham Literature Festival's programme of free events.
Audiences can expect dramatised live readings of terrifying new tales accompanied by live music and sound effects, promising an immersive experience that's sure to send shivers down your spine.
Moth Sanctuary Productions has been performing at the Lit Crawl since it launched in 2016 and has created adaptations of classic works including Paradise Lost by John Milton, The Company of Wolves by Angela Carter and a gender-swapped version of Frankenstein by Mary Shelley; original takes on gothic horror greats, including The King In Yellow, Edgar Allan Poe's The Fall of the House of Usher and Dracula-inspired feminist epic The Fourth Bride; as well as a collection of all-original short stories in Dr Sandy's Gallery of Stories.
The podcast, which started life as a lockdown project in 2020, has now amassed tens of thousands of downloads across the world, scaring souls from Cheltenham all the way to Australia, the USA, Japan and Africa – with this event being the first-ever live performance of 'Penny Dreadfuls from the Moth Sanctuary'.
Moth Sanctuary Productions is also taking part in main programme event, The Haunted Imagination, on Sunday 12 October 2025, sharing live readings of their original stories set in haunted houses, alongside authors Caitlin Blackwell-Baines and Ben Machell, with tickets costing £15 each available from the Cheltenham Festivals website.
'Penny Dreadfuls from the Moth Sanctuary' is available on major podcast services including Audible, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music and iHeartRadio, with the new season due to be released this month.
