For this year’s Halloween the Brighton Dome is showing an unsettling production that will make you question reality. Séance is a twenty minute show where twenty participants enter a pitch-black room and put on headphones to undergo a series of sonic recordings. Writer Glen Neath and director David Rosenberg are best known for making unilluminated theatre. Their company Darkfield, focuses on producing psychological plays that are set in rooms without light, transforming the performance viewer into a listener.
Rosenberg highlights that when “you hear a footstep [you] think, ‘Is everyone sitting down in their chairs? Have people got up?”. This play questions what a performance should be and separates the spectator’s senses to achieve an overall unusual and hyper-immersive experience. With the growing virtual reality culture within the arts, creating a performance devoid of visual aspects is a great counter-culture and innovative way to experience art. “With virtual reality, you’ve got this headset on so you know you’re in this virtual world. Whereas with ours, we’re playing with the idea that we don’t know what’s real and what’s not”, says Neath.
By combining performance and psychological elements, this hybrid show will put to the test your immediate responses to disconcerting situations. Reviews on the show forecasts that this experience would be like no other and will leave you disturbed during this halloween season. For a small preview of the show’s atmosphere, take a look at their small trailer which you can see in the Brighton Dome website. Are you courageous enough to participate in Séance and encounter first-hand this unorthodox play?
Performances are from Friday 27th – Sunday 29th Oct at Jubilee Square and installations run every 20mins between:
Fri 4pm – 10pm
Sat 12pm – 11pm
Sun 12pm – 10pm
Featured Image: Brighton Dome