Séance

Spooky season is upon us, so it’s the perfect time for a Séance. This one takes place in a 40-foot shipping container. The interior has been converted to appear like a Victorian era room containing one long table flanked by chairs. There isn't a Ouija board in sight however and most of the action takes place in the scariest location of all - the mind.

This cleverly immersive experience is a concept by the Darkfield creative team (Artistic Directors David Rosenberg and Glen Neath, Creative Producer and Director Victoria Eyton) and produced in Australia by Realscape Productions (led by Producers Amy Johnson and Nathan Alexander). They’ve been feeding contemporary audiences’ lust for interactive experiential entertainment with four ‘container shows’: Flight, Coma, Eulogy, and Séance.

Upon entering the container, you’re instructed to take a seat and place some headphones on your ears. That’s when you’re thrust into a 360-degree audio-scape. It’s unbelievably believable, tricking you into trusting everything you hear. During the Séance you experience a total blackout, during which your other senses heighten. That’s when your imagination starts to fill in the gaps, picturing the characters and scenarios that play out. The set is also rigged to add some movement and vibration to the experience. That further supports the immersion and believability.

The star of Séance is undoubtably the sound design. Every whisper seems so realistic, and you can ‘hear’ characters moving around you. The red velvet chairs, white linen tablecloth and arsenic green on the walls harken to a time when people were obsessed with trying to commune with the dead via séances. The narrative itself is spooky and literally sends chills down the spine.

Séance is a lot of fun if you’re not too easily spooked. It’s 20 minutes of thrilling entertainment, although you might leave the show wondering if you’ve got an evil entity attached to you! Perhaps Darkfield’s next show could be an exorcism.

Kitty Goodall

Photographer: Jack Rintoul