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I don't think I've seen any theatre since 2019 and I've missed it. So when I learned that darkfield radio had an installation nearby, and all the accessibility info looked good, I hiked my way off to Stratford to see some shows.
Darkfield specialise in immersive audio and the shows primarily take place in pitch blackness. There's a built in sequence of taking you into the dark and out again so audience members have a chance to leave safely if its too much.
The shows have trigger warnings. The shows need trigger warnings. All of them deal with dark heavy themes and the darkness leaves you isolated and alone while voices whisper into your ears. I found it a very intense experience. Enjoyable, but walking the line of overwhelming.
Even though you can't see it for most of the show, they've gone to the effort to create seating that puts you into the setting. Plane seats for flight, modified laundry carts for eulogy that is set in a hotel, beds for coma.
Common to the other bits of immersive theatre I've seen, the plots are looser. Go in expecting to come out confused and feeling like you've done a high adrenaline activity.
Onto the shows.
COMA: First up, I managed to miss that medical experimentation was a big part of this one. Oops. Leading to some strange interplay between my experiences with the medical system and the show. I don't think I was suppose to be considering my trust level in the production when asked to take a placebo as part of the performance. I think we were playing around with real versus imagined and the trustworthiness of authority figures as the man in charge took us between worlds that all looked just like this one. Delightfully creepy when I got out of my way enough to focus on the performance.
I think I ruined the ending for myself by getting distracted thinking about how I was going to get out of the bunkbed, but that was probably inevitable.
EULOGY, with its focus on death, was also perhaps not the soundest of ideas. Going through the hotel floors and the way they made the lift movement feel real was intensely satisfying. Having a companion whispering in my ear as she guided me through and listening to conversations taking place at multiple distances was a delight.
I suspect I was supposed to feel anxiety at giving a big speech all unprepared. Sadly, that's happened enough to me in real life that I was distinctly unbothered. They gave me a eulogy that felt like it was read from a co-workers leaving card, bland and insincere. I enjoyed it in a masochistic kind of way, which I'm aware is not entirely healthy. Lots of themes of being trapped in a cycle in this one and a lovely closing note of understanding what you were in the scene.
Overall, I really enjoyed it and I'm contemplating going back for the two shows I didn't see.
Darkfield specialise in immersive audio and the shows primarily take place in pitch blackness. There's a built in sequence of taking you into the dark and out again so audience members have a chance to leave safely if its too much.
The shows have trigger warnings. The shows need trigger warnings. All of them deal with dark heavy themes and the darkness leaves you isolated and alone while voices whisper into your ears. I found it a very intense experience. Enjoyable, but walking the line of overwhelming.
Even though you can't see it for most of the show, they've gone to the effort to create seating that puts you into the setting. Plane seats for flight, modified laundry carts for eulogy that is set in a hotel, beds for coma.
Common to the other bits of immersive theatre I've seen, the plots are looser. Go in expecting to come out confused and feeling like you've done a high adrenaline activity.
Onto the shows.
COMA: First up, I managed to miss that medical experimentation was a big part of this one. Oops. Leading to some strange interplay between my experiences with the medical system and the show. I don't think I was suppose to be considering my trust level in the production when asked to take a placebo as part of the performance. I think we were playing around with real versus imagined and the trustworthiness of authority figures as the man in charge took us between worlds that all looked just like this one. Delightfully creepy when I got out of my way enough to focus on the performance.
I think I ruined the ending for myself by getting distracted thinking about how I was going to get out of the bunkbed, but that was probably inevitable.
EULOGY, with its focus on death, was also perhaps not the soundest of ideas. Going through the hotel floors and the way they made the lift movement feel real was intensely satisfying. Having a companion whispering in my ear as she guided me through and listening to conversations taking place at multiple distances was a delight.
I suspect I was supposed to feel anxiety at giving a big speech all unprepared. Sadly, that's happened enough to me in real life that I was distinctly unbothered. They gave me a eulogy that felt like it was read from a co-workers leaving card, bland and insincere. I enjoyed it in a masochistic kind of way, which I'm aware is not entirely healthy. Lots of themes of being trapped in a cycle in this one and a lovely closing note of understanding what you were in the scene.
Overall, I really enjoyed it and I'm contemplating going back for the two shows I didn't see.