It was a warm late September evening in Canary Wharf. Two of the Scare Directory team were joined by Amber from Parks, Scares and Glitter to experience Darkfield.

We had all experienced some of what Darkfield could offer before but this was different. This was the opportunity to experience all three experiences in one place on the same evening.

All of Darkfield’s experiences have two core components, firstly they’re pitch black, and we mean properly pitch black, you won’t be able to see your hand in front of your face. Secondly you’ll be wearing headphones throughout the experience. This combination of visual sensory deprivation and enhanced auditory senses really helps to build the immersion and amps up your imagination to create the world around you The quality of the audio experience is superb and combined with other effects again helps to immerse you in this weird world. It’s tricky to describe to be honest and really must be experienced in person.

Before we entered the shipping containers we were given the usual instructions and disclaimers for anyone that suffers from claustrophobia or fear of the dark. If you suffer from either, then Darkfield’s events won’t be for you. Coma in particular won’t be great for claustrophobes.

Séance

The first attraction on the list was Séance, and the one the whole group had experienced previously at The Vaults Festival in London.

Darkfield describes this experience as “SÉANCE – the first DARKFIELD experience, transforms the interior of a 24ft container into a Victorian séance room. Over 20 minutes, it explores the psychology of a group of people, and asks that they believe, not only in what seems to be happening inside the container but also in what might be conjured up into the room with them..”

We won’t go into the full details here (please see our previous Séance review). Saying that it is worth mentioning that during our recent experience we had a full house. This added to the experience immersing us further into the story and making the whole experience even more believable.

Flight

We followed Séance with Flight which had previously been to the Edinburgh Fringe and The Vaults Festival in London, described by Darkfield as “FLIGHT – The 40ft container’s interior exactly resembles an Airbus 320 economy cabin, and over 30 minutes transports audience members into two parallel worlds: two realities offering two possible outcomes to their journey.”

Prior to boarding we were handed our boarding pass. These were randomly handed out to the group meaning you would not be sat with the people you came with.

We boarded the plane, and we really do mean plane. The whole shipping container was transformed into the inside of an aeroplane, windows, lights the lot. We took our seats and started to go through the usual safety briefing. As the lights went out we were immersed into this lively exhilarating audio show.

Sitting there with the lights out you heard the familiar sounds of a flight, the captain talking to the crew, the refreshment trolley, people chattering and even babies crying. It was time for takeoff.

Flight takes passengers on a journey into the thought experiment Schrödinger’s cat. Where all possible outcomes exist until one is observed.

Coming out of Flight you will question what you just experienced? How did it make you feel? Was it real? This was by far the strongest of the three experiences and one that we would highly recommend. The only criticism is that the experience would be enhanced if guests were greeted by an actor dressed as a flight attendant. Saying this we don’t feel it detracted from what was an intense, interesting and thought provoking experience.

Coma

Last up was the final and latest show from Darkfield. Coma had a successful initial run at Edinburgh Fringe earlier this year and we were keen to experience this in its second run at Canary Wharf.

Coma, in Darkfield’s own words “COMA – invites audiences to take part in a mass experiment, to lie down together and slip into a collective dream, over 30 minutes.”. There are more cryptic details and photos on their web site, but as with all of their events, We feel it’s better to go in as blind as possible.

On entering we were, as usual, impressed with the quality of the set. What Darkfield manage to do with the interior of a shipping container is superb. This one had been converted into a series of three-tier bunk bed style sleep-pods. It reminded me of a set of compartments on a sleeper train. Steven shotgunned the top bunk, but as he was last in of our group of three, He was royally stitched up and ended up in the bottom bunk. Headphones on and final preparations complete it was time to get comfy and wait for the dimming of the lights.

In Coma, we think that they also used smells, the first effect was a very noticeable scent that fits in the narrative, the second we felt didn’t work. Then again it could all have been part of our imagination using the power of suggestion. This ambiguity is one of the cool parts that last long after the event itself.

Coma, in particular, left us wondering what exactly had we just experienced. In both a good way and a bad way. Personally, we felt that the narrative as a whole was a little lacking, especially when experienced in such close proximity to their other two shows. There were two main sections to the narrative and I felt they jarred a little and it wasn’t clear to us how exactly they were meant to be linked. We also didn’t quite get what the purpose of the experience was about. Obviously subjective, but for us we could have done with a bit more exposition at the beginning and after the end of the second section of the narrative.

Overall we felt this was the weakest of the three Darkfield experiences, but still a huge amount of fun, excitement and slight scares. The setting and audio were amazing and we thoroughly enjoyed it. Coma cost £8.25, for about a 25 minute experience that for the quality that you get is great value.

We’d highly recommend any of the three performances and all of us would happily go to whatever Darkfield concepts they come up with in the future.

Darkfield really know how to produce incredible sonic experiences that we would wholeheartedly recommend.

If you want to find out what Darkfield have planned take look at the Darkfield show schedule.

Scare Directory
Author: Scare Directory