Just how much do you rely on your senses? Darkfield’s multi-sensory experience asks just that question. Three containers. Three scenarios. Total darkness. With just sound around you, how much can you take?
Set in the courtyard of Kings Cross, three intensely immersive experiences await, Seance, Flight and Coma contain three irrational scenarios that are made to feel very, very real.
Upon arrival, and once checked in, you’re instantly made to feel at ease with a very reassuring staff; you’re briefed, and then led into the containers.
Once inside, each container is set up like one of the scenarios, a design that works incredibly well with the show content. A table and old Victorian style chairs add to the eerie Seance feel, an aeroplane cabin and boarding passes make Flight believable, and triple bunk beds to lay down on, make Coma feel all too real.
The fact that each experience is set in total darkness is easily the strength; being instantly immersed in darkness with the headphones playing makes you overthink the slightest movement or noise. The attention to detail makes the overall sense of involvement so much stronger, as you feel completely submerged in the container, overanalysing the simplest detail.
Fans of ‘Black Mirror’ should definitely look into this; my only suggestion would be to book time slots with large gaps in between; standing around waiting for the next experience can feel tedious as the location doesn’t have anything around it with which to pass the time. Having said that, definitely book all three as the experience needs to be completed as a trio.
It’s fantastic and definitely something to undertake, however brave you think you are. Once those container doors shut you may just have to reconsider how brave you actually are!
It runs until 22 March.
Review: George Butler Photo: Sean Pollock Photography