Manhunt at St Leonards-on-Sea is a seven-episode audio drama you can listen to anywhere, and a trail you can walk. A woman sent by an obscure Company hunts the brilliant con man who stole its secrets: a small language model (SLM) built to read, and steer, human minds. The two are former lovers, and betrayal is a habit.
Listeners follow her through a station, a bookshop, a thrift shop, a launderette, the seafront and the town's oldest pub, where real objects, real voices and real streets blur into the plot, until St Leonards itself feels like a film set.
Developed for ((XMTR)) Audio Arts Festival 2026 and funded by The National Lottery and Arts Council England.
Listen to the first episode
READ ARTIST PORTFOLIO / PROCESS + OUTCOME
Visit the MANHUNT website
THE REAL TOWN
Everyday places become clues. Objects planted along the route, from a lost-horse flyer to a ceramic horse in a thrift shop window, give streets and shopfronts a second life.
THE LOGIC OF THE CHASE
An enigmatic Company. A stolen small language model. Former lovers. And the Moscow Rules: Cold War tradecraft turned into a private game of signals, like green tape on a traffic light or a chalk cross on a tree.
SEARCHING FOR CLUES
The conspiracy board contains important clues that could lead to the fugitive. Assuming, of course, that they are not just a clever red herring straight out of the Moscow Rules manual.