Have you ever experienced an event so surreal that it made you question everything? If not, now is your chance as Darkfield: Séance & Flight makes its way to the forecourt of Canberra Theatre Centre (CTC) on 28 March- 14 April.  

Inside purpose-built shipping containers await realities concentrating on what you can hear rather than what you can see. Exploring the depths of human psychology and perception, the experiences employ sensory deprivation, sensory effects and binaural audio through stereo isolation headphones to completely envelop listeners as the lights go out.  

“There’s movement, smells, vibration and one show has voice recognition… There is so much you can do with sound, sound is an important part of any experience,” says Nathan Alexander, producer Realscape Productions and Darkfield Australia.

“Audio plays such a big part in any entertainment that when you take it away, we can create things that we can’t necessarily recreate physically. Your brain hears these noises and assumes that it is there.”

In one container, the scene is set with two rows of antique chairs perched against Art Deco walls, dividing them is one long table. Taking a seat on the chair sourced from regional Victoria and crafted in 1912, you are transported back to an early 1900s parlour room, preparing to make contact with the dead.

“Rather than do you believe in ghosts, it’s more about whether or not you believe the person in the room is there with you and what you’re hearing is real rather than the physical spirits themselves,” says Mr Alexander.

The Séance experience is a fan favourite, Mr Alexander says it is one of the more basic shows technically, but many people are drawn to the ideas it touches on. It explores the psychology of what happens when a group of people are bombarded with suggestible material, will they be persuaded?

The other shipping container has been fitted out to emulate an Airbus 320 economy cabin, complete with authentic plane seats, overhead bins, safety pamphlets and air conditioning that is just a bit too cold. Strapping in, you take off from the bumpy tarmac.

Soon you find yourself trapped in this metal contraption thousands of kilometres in the air during an emergency. Influenced by the interpretation of Quantum Mechanics, reality seems to split into two. In one reality you are making the wrong choice and in the other, you may have made the right one. 

“It goes more into the multiverse and a Sliding Doors kind of thing. Once you go inside you end up playing two scenarios by two different planes.”

While both scenarios have settings that could potentially frighten the viewer, Mr Alexander says this too comes down to the viewer, their perception and already existing fears.

“There are elements of intenseness about but everyone’s idea of scary is different. We try not to push it down the scary route, people then go in really nervous and miss out on all the good bits of the show because they’re thinking about what is going to happen,” says Mr Alexander.

The experiences aren’t suitable for people who are pregnant or have heart or back problems. If you are unsure whether this description fits you or you have any other concerns about whether Darkfield is right for you, reach out to the staff at CTC.

“If you have claustrophobia come check it out; we’ve had people who have come in and it has helped them. It feels like a tight space, but when you have your headphones on in the darkness, the sound makes the space a lot larger than it is.”

Flight and Séance were created by UK-based Darkfield founders Glen Neath and David Rosenburg. Darkfield came to Australia in 2017, Mr Alexander says they wanted to bring it over here because there was nothing else like it for Australian audiences.

“It’s just a unique experience, I can’t think of anywhere in Australia where you can be in complete darkness with what we are doing… You never really get to be in complete darkness, you’re never really in a place where there is complete darkness, there is always an LED light or a little bit of light.”

Step into a new reality in Darkfield: Séance & Flight at Canberra Theatre Centre on 28 March – 14 April; canberratheatrecentre.com.au.

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