Interview: Darkfield Producer Nathan Alexander

Melbourne, prepare to be thrilled and put on edge at Darkfield! Incorporating four different immersive theatre experiences, each Darkfield experience occurs within the constraints of a shipping container. When the lights go out, you will be taken on a spine-chilling journey in complete darkness, using multi-sensory audio. I recently chatted to one of the producer's Nathan Alexander to find out what to expect!

Tell me a little bit about Darkfield and the four different experiences for Melbourne?

The Darkfield experiences all take place in our signature white shipping containers, and they all have a different narrative, so even though they all use complete darkness and binaural sound, each container has a very different story. In Séance, our original, which started in 2017, you're trying to talk to the dead and conjure up spirits. Flight which we started in 2018, is all about the multiverse. In one world you're on a plane and everything is fine and in another world you're not so good. Inside the container there is a section of a 737 which we had to try and track down! Coma, which hasn't been to Melbourne before, is a little bit more abstract and very different to the other two. It's a bit of a science experiment dream, you lie in a bed, and as part of the experience we've had a pharmaceutical company make a pill, with the word coma on it. Trying to find a pharmaceutical company at the beginning of the pandemic to make 50,000 pills was a challenge! Finally, our new experience, Eulogy, uses voice recognition. We thought, wouldn't it be nice to tailor the experience, and we've managed to do that in Eulogy by having the audience make decisions.

How did the concept for Darkfield arise?

David Rosenberg and Glenn Neath who are our creative directors have a background with Shunt, the London-based performance collective which pioneered immersive theatre. They've been working with sound and shipping containers for a very long time and as immersive theatre really took off they wanted to go in a different direction and that's how Séance was created. Originally Séance was on a stage when it was first done, however because you can never have total control in a theatre, the use of a shipping container came about instead.

Where do the four Darkfield experiences sit on the 'scary spectrum'?

While people who like to be sacred are drawn to these experiences, to scare is not our overall goal. There is always a theme that is explored. As everyone's idea of being scared or terrified is different we prefer to describe the Darkfield experiences as intense. The thing that makes them intense is the audio, which is intentionally intrusive, designed to take people out of their comfort zone, while being surrounded in darkness.

Is their one experience that you would recommend Darkfield audiences experience first.

Séance is always a good starter, even though in terms of technicalities it is actually the most basic. Doing them in order is always good because the technology that we incorporate in each experience is different. That way there's always something new and you never quite know what to expect.

Darkfield will be live in Melbourne from 26th May - 31st July.

Please note these experiences are not suitable for those who are pregnant, under 13, or suffering from back or heart conditions. Ages 13 - 15 must be accompanied by a responsible adult ticketholder.

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