EDINBURGH 2023: Review: SEANCE, Pleasance Dome, Potterrow Plaza, Container 2

Have you ever used a Ouija Board to communicate with spirits? Taken a ghost tour of an old city looking for those who haunt the streets? Walked through a supposedly haunted house in the hopes of seeing something supernatural? Even though I am on the fence on whether or not spirits exist in this world, I try to keep an open mind and have gone on several adventures to try to find ghosts. When I saw the description of DARKFIELD’s show, Séance, I was immediately drawn to the concept. Turning a shipping container into a séance room for a 20-minute experience? Count me in!

When walking into the shipping container (yes, it is an actual shipping container), I was surprised at how eerie the DARKFIELD team managed to make it look. There was a long table extending the length of the container with chairs on each side. Several lamps hung from the ceiling along with a few bells, seemingly for the spirits to communicate with us during our session. 

The show really starts once you put on your headphones and you are plunged into complete darkness, with your only warning being to keep your hands on the table. From there, the audio takes over, with a medium leading you through the séance session. Of course, things start to go wrong when a fellow audience member seemingly removes their hands from the table. Throughout the show, the medium is whispering things into your ear and speaking to others, but it is obvious that there is no real medium in the room and that nothing is actually happening, even with some physical movement from the table underneath your hands.

Ultimately, Séance has the potential to be a fantastic show, but without a strong plot and only a few physical gimmicks, it fails to pull you into the world of the spirits. I went in with an open mind and left disappointed, feeling like I had seen a cheap magic trick and not an eerie show. It is certainly a step forward in audio-based theatre and has some interesting effects to spook audience members, but those alone cannot make it a great show.

Séance runs at Pleasance Dome, Potterrow Plaza, Container 2 at varying times until 28 August.

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