Darkfield is slowly but surely mastering the art of the small-scale, audio-led, shipping-container-based immersive experience.
On that front, there’s no-one else who can challenge them. They’ve been going for more than half a decade now, and they’ve produced some truly great shows (Séance, Flight, Coma and Eulogy) which make clever use of both darkened sets and audio illusions to create a sense of a far wider landscape than the restrictive box you’re actually in. Well, now they’re back with a new gig: Arcade.
It’s going to be launching as part of the London Film Festival‘s experimental side hustle LFF Expanded, and it all takes place inside one of the company’s signature dark shipping containers, glowing with the distinctive, vibrant neon rainbow aesthetic of the ’80s arcade machine.
As with all Darkfield experiences it is always best to go in knowing as little as possible. But the bare-bones lowdown is that the experience will be part video game, and part immersive theatre. This is a play, and you’re a player. Each audience member gets their own arcade machine, with their own headphones. As you play the game, you’ll hear cast members whispering in your ear, and feel the illusory wider soundscape emerging while making complex moral decisions on screen throughout the game.
Apparently, there are 30 different possible endings. But given that the show’s already been thoroughly road-tested at this year’s Edinburgh Fringe, and collected a whole bunch of five-star reviews in the process…
…they’re probably all satisfying ones.
NOTE: Arcade is running from 12th-27th October as part of LFF Expanded. The show takes roughly 30mins, and costs £14. You can get tickets from the LFF website.
Arcade | Theatre Avenue Avenue, Outside BFI Southbank
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