The company Darkfield are a Fringe regular now, known for their shows housed in completely dark shipping containers. It is a bold and striking concept, but how far can they expand this idea across multiple shows?
The equivalent of a rather unexciting fairground ride
In Eulogy, the participants are seated in separate wheeled cages, similar to those used for filling shelves in supermarkets. There are some creepy bureaucratic routines, and the lights go out as we are handed over to our individual guides.
Using darkness or blindfolding the audience can produce memorable experiences. Darkfield uses headphone audio effects instead of actors. There are some advantages to this: the sound effects can take you through different environments (a swimming pool, a car park etc) and the set can physically move to evoke the moving cages or lifts descending.
But ultimately, if the concept or the script is not good enough the technology becomes a gimmick rather than an experience. And unfortunately the concept and script is hardly The Twilight Zone or Black Mirror. The event is meandering, confusing and ultimately unengaging.
At the start of the show the setting is diffuse. Are we dead? Are we descending into hell? Over time the surrounding becomes clarified as a dreamlike hotel, and the experience is a combination of bureaucratic nightmare and anxiety dream.
But the hotel setting means most of the episodes are merely trivial: I don’t care if I’m not allowed in the canteen. Most of the bureaucratic issues are because the guide is an irritating idiot. Each of these unaffecting episodes brings you out of the dream illusion.
Another weakness is there are many environments that will prompt more visceral reactions than a hotel. I was also distracted by the logic; for example, I understand being in the dark for a seance but why does that apply to a hotel? And how come the guides can see?
There was one frightening point, which wisely, the show did not linger on. (A limitation of the form is that you are literally trapped in a container, so Darkfield have to be careful not to terrify people too much.)
The noticeable technological difference with an earlier show such as Flight is that the headphones are equipped with a microphone. A speech recognition system requires you to give ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ answers in a similar manner to the routing systems you get on telephone answering services. The information I provided was only used at one point in the show. Perhaps if I had interrupted the guide’s speeches it might have produced a different experience, but I doubt it. (Darkfield can’t be expected to be using ChatGPT quite yet.)
The show is 30 minutes, which is a good thing as the boredom threshold is being reached by this point.
Performers can show incredible skill at their craft or they can show work that is the product of deep personal commitment: sometimes both. This concept and script shows neither, so we are left with the equivalent of a rather unexciting fairground ride.
