one4review | On 13, Aug 2019

COMA is the latest show from DARKFIELD, a company who specialise in immersive experiences using cutting edge sound technology. The show is housed in a shipping container fitted out with rows of bunks, which make you feel like you’re in a submarine. Participants take their places lying down in the bunks. They are given instructions through speakers in the walls and then through their headphones. You are participating in something rather than watching it, you are in fact in complete darkness. The sound delivered through the headphones builds a physical world around you so effectively that you can feel it. I did start questioning whether I had my eyes open or closed and waving my arms around to check the space around me. Everything is tinged with a medicinal quality and designed to disorient. The whole experience seemed to stretch the time and space around me. I couldn’t believe we’d been in there for 25 minutes it felt like 2. You are guided through the experience by a detached voice that sounds a bit like the presenter of an educational video from the 1970’s. If you are at all squeamish or claustrophobic don’t see this show. Otherwise I would definitely recommend doing it and going in with an open mind.
****
Reviewed by Sarah
Summerhall – The Terrace
Various Times
Until 25th