Darkfield: The Most Intense Sound of Your Life
By Maddy Piggott
For those of you unfamiliar with Darkfield, they deliver a series of touring, narrative-focused audio experiences. Each experience tells a unique story solely through sound, and takes place inside a single shipping container with all light from outside completely blacked out. Darkfield has finally arrived in Canberra in partnership with Canberra Theatre Centre. Two of their experiences, Séance and Flight, are currently set up in front of the Canberra Theatre in Civic. The experiences are available until the 14th of April and tickets are only $27.
Last week we were invited to partake in both Séance and Flight. What followed was not something we were expecting. Please note we will try our best to keep this review as spoiler-free as possible. However, if you are a person who prefers to go into story experiences completely blind, then please stop reading here and go and experience these for yourself.
some spoilers below - including the insides of the containers!!
First things first, do not be fooled by the simple premise of the Darkfield experience. You may not think wearing a pair of headphones in a shipping container could be scary, but it was easily one of the most intense performance experiences I have had in my life to this point. I cannot overstate how real the 360-degree soundscape feels while you’re experiencing it. Not to mention that each experience is very different in feeling and tone.
Séance, as the name suggests, features a paranormal horror story that deals with spirits and experience of the supernatural. If you have ever had an interest in supernatural horror or a desire to partake in a séance, then you need to try this experience. And please if you do commit to it, make sure you put your hands on the table. You will get so much more out of the experience if you do!
Our first look at the interior of Séance as we walk in.
Full disclosure, going into these experiences I was very unsure about Flight. I have a fear of heights and simply being in a plane scares me. After the lifelike experience of Séance, I was hesitant to even enter the Flight container. This fear and trepidation was heightened when I saw the interior of the container had been transformed into a fully equipped plane cabin. But Flight was not the realistic horror experience I feared. Instead, it was a disorientating existential journey that was equally intense in a very different way.
Our first look at the interior of Flight as we walk in.