Séance ★★★
The interior of a 24ft container is transformed into a Victorian séance room.
Darkfield’s latest immersive experience, taking place in a shipping container, seeks to thrill by marrying innovative sound design to a creepy concept.
Now a regular haunter of the Fringe, Darkfield specialise in immersive audio experiences that take place in complete darkness. One of their three productions being brought to this year’s Fringe (the others being Eulogy and Coma), this show’s title can be taken entirely literally.
Shut in a cramped shipping container, up to 20 people are gathered around a seance table. The lights go off and no-one can even see their hand right in front of them. Headphones are placed over ears and then …
Well, to say too much would be to spoil any element of surprise. Suffice to say clever 3D-sound design is there to fire up the imagination to such an extent that the audience is unnerved.
It’s undeniable that Séance is initially unsettling. However, once you work out what’s going on, the effect is more amusing than scary. Indeed the most alarming thing about this is being in such close proximity in pitch darkness to total strangers.
A cool idea, for sure, but the script doesn’t really do enough with it. That the sound design is impressive is the very least one would expect. There’s fun to be had here, for sure, but Séance doesn’t quite have the spine chilling impact it strives for.
Are there any stars there? Yes, ★★★ three stars
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