Darkfield – Arcade – Nottingham – March 2024
It’s been almost three years since we last went to an all new, all Darkfield show, so when they announced that their fifth and latest shipping container-based show would be opening up at Lakeside Arts at Nottingham we had to go along and see what this new show had in store.
Arcade was originally due to open in 2023, but was unfortunately delayed a couple of times, so it was great to see its inaugural run at Lakeside, where we were fortunate to attend Darkfield’s Eulogy a few years back. In the run up to this show we were very intrigued by Arcade with its description and marketing. With Darkfield’s in-person shows there are certain common themes and Arcade is no different in this regard. Yes, it is inside a shipping container. Yes, it will be an audio-based experience. Yes, it will be pitch black. Yes, the experience will be around 25 to 30 mins long.
There are a few other bits and pieces in common with all the previous Darkfield shows, Arcade diverges by giving a huge amount of narrative freedom. Early shows were entirely on rails narratively and even where an element of choice was introduced in Coma and Eulogy there wasn’t a huge amount of choice. Arcade however is akin to a choose your own adventure style of experience and leans into the 8-bit aesthetic of video games from the 80’s.
As with all Darkfield experiences it is always best to go in knowing as little as possible, so we’ll refrain from revealing anything that hasn’t already been put in public marketing, but it does mean that the review will be a bit limited in some descriptive elements. After you turn up at the site of the container and get your tickets checked, it was a short wait for everyone else and we had the usual housekeeping / health and safety speech as well as some laminated cards about the content and trigger warnings.
On time the doors were opened up and around 25 to 30 of us entered the container. It’s worth noting that for the duration of this experience you will be stood up. There is room for a couple of people per show to sit, so will need to contact Darkfield for this more accessible way of enjoying the show.
Arcade, as you’d expect, is based around a classic Arcade video game machine. One for each person in the container. With a few other bits and pieces of props, and wonderfully fitting carpet, you can take in your surroundings as everyone gets into place and you put your headphones on and follow the initial instructions. We felt that the interior was very in keeping with the theme, but didn’t quite have the wow factor of Coma or Flight for instance.
After that initial audio briefing you have one last opportunity to leave before the lights go out for good and the show begins. It’s also worth mentioning that there are no live actors, there’s no touch (other than possible accidental bumping of a fellow guest), there’s no moving around, but in this particular show you may have one or two simple actions.
Our narrative (and it was our narrative in this instance) is dependent on your simple actions. It starts off quite disorienting, which is perfectly understandable in the circumstances and may or may not become clearer through the show. We felt that the narrative we experienced was confusing throughout and wasn’t particularly memorable (we’ve already forgotten what our ending was). As we were leaving it was clear that this wasn’t the case with many others as they excitedly discussed what had happened to them with their groups.
As such we’d say that Arcade is probably much more fulfilling if experienced as part of a group, as the post-show discussion will probably lead to a large amount of debate and dissection. There are apparently 30 different endings to this, so it could also be something that you may want to repeat multiple times if you so wish. For us we didn’t find our particular story compelling enough to want to go back and see what other paths we could have taken, but that is a personal preference and your mileage may vary massively on that front.
Audio, both the voice acting and the sound effects were top notch. We cannot fault Darkfield on that front and they continue to create some of the most immersive environments purely because of the audio that they produce. There may be some other surprising effects that also happen during the experience, but this is an audio-led show.
Both during and after coming back out of the show, we were left with a lot of questions, specifically how our narrative related to some of the deeper aspects of the show, namely around choice, agency, the relationship between players and avatars and how, if at all, some of the marketing related to our story. We felt that this was a bit of a double edged sword, as yes it would be great to discuss with other individuals and compare their thoughts and experiences, without that it ended up feeling a bit flat, and offered no meaningful insight on the deeper aspects of the show. This will however probably change as more people experience the show.
And you should definitely go and experience the show if you can. It was less than £10 for around 25 mins and despite our personal misgivings, you might end up with a much more compelling story, and if you can go with a group we feel that this will improve the post-show experience.
Darkfield’s Arcade is currently running through to 24th March at Lakeside Arts in Nottingham and will then run at Gloucester Guildhall from 27th March through to 7th April. Further details and tickets can be found on their website.
Eulogy
Eulogy is Darkfield’s fourth shipping container based in person show, and after a couple of short runs in Nottingham and London is now back in Nottingham for a more extended run. We got the opportunity to visit this new post-lockdown creation from the Darkfield team. We’ve pretty much done everything of theirs to date including the at home adventures on Darkfield Radio, but we’ve always enjoyed the shipping container shows and were understandably keen to experience it.
The venue for this run is the Lakeside Arts Centre in Nottingham, it was easy enough to find the all white container at the venue. We arrived early and thankfully were allowed in for an earlier showing than the one we had booked and joined two other people for Eulogy. Our initial guide explained the basic set up, health and safety, etc. before handing us a card which told us our individual room that we would be staying in at the hotel.
It’s really difficult to go into much detail with a Darkfield show and it’s usually best to go in as blind as possible. The interior of the container is probably the one that actually most looks like the inside of a shipping container, but was still impressive. If you’ve seen some of the promo pictures on social media you’ll have seen a number of individual open ‘cages’ where we all had an assigned seat. I didn’t spot the names of all the rooms, but there are some fun easter eggs in the names, that feed into the wider world building of the show.
We took our assigned seats, put on the headphones, did some final checks and once the lights went out and we were plunged into complete darkness the show began. One thing that was notably different for Eulogy was the presence of a microphone for our headsets. A few times we were asked questions, and these questions had an impact on the content of the show. Not massively, but it felt like we were receiving a much more personal touch to proceedings.
Audio quality as with all Darkfield productions was amazing, it truly immerses you in the world of their creation and coupled with other sound, vibrations and smells does make you question if you are still sitting still in a shipping container. The execution of all these elements together was flawless. In terms of narrative, again without giving too much away, this reviewer particularly enjoyed the strange nature of it, and the setting worked really well with the visual elements of the set that we saw at the start. We’ll still be unpicking elements of the narrative long after the event.
We really enjoyed Eulogy by Darkfield and highly recommend a visit if you can make it to Lakeside Arts Centre in Nottingham for its current run through to 31st October. If not, try and visit wherever it next pops up.
Darkfield – Canary Wharf 2019
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.
Before we entered the shipping containers we were given the usual instructions and disclaimers for
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
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.
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
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
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.
Séance by Darkfield at Vault Festival 2019 Review
I’d heard good things about this show from it’s time at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival so thought as I had to come to London anyway for a meeting I could make the most of the visit and experience Séance.
The show takes place inside a shipping container with nothing but 20 seats, a table and a pair of headphones per person hanging on the wall. You are told very little about what will happen adding to the anticipation.
Once you are seated with headphones in place the room is plunged into darkness. As you sit there in the pitch black you start to hear things, it sounds like someone enters the room. Do they or is it just in your ears? This play on the senses continues to develop as you loose all sense of what is real and make believe.
The line between what is real and what is fake is well and truly blurred. The experience would make anyone doubt there own perceptions.
Unfortunately when I went through Séance there was only two of us in the room. I feel that having a larger audience would make the experience even more immersive and believable.
Overall the performance is definitely worth a visit and is sure to make you question reality.
Séance takes place at the Vault Festival near Waterloo Station in London with various performances from 23rd January to 17th March.
