Visitors: Darkfield Radio, Tues 13 Oct 2020 ***1/2

By Realscape Productions (AU) and Darkfield (AU)

On the Darkfield Radio App

7.30pm Tuesday 13 Oct 2020

18 minute audio play for two people

Reviewer: Kate Herbert 

Stars: ***1/2

This review published only on this Blog. KH

Visitors, by Darkfield Radio, is an evocative, intimate and eerie audio experience that brings performance right to our ears and transports us from our homes to places unfamiliar and unknown.

Listeners experience this audio play while seated in their own  living room with chairs facing opposite 3m apart. It is designed for two people, both wearing headphones, sitting with eyes closed, in a darkened room with a window, a door, a table and two chairs 3 metres apart. You’ll understand why when you embark on this experience. 

I won’t spoil the surprises with any more detail or revelations about who these visitors are or what they want from their hosts. Suffice to say, it is like attending a séance so prepare yourself for 18 minutes of sightly disorienting audio drama.

 

Each of the two listeners hears a different part of the story from the perspective of one of the visitors. The audio technique resembles that used in the UK production, The Encounter, performed by Simon McBurney. 

 

The ‘visitors’ arrive, and we hear two women’s uninflected voices telling us that they have many invitations. Then we hear their footsteps, chairs scraping on the floor and then breathing that feels alarmingly close to our ears.

 

Sounds shift startlingly from ear to ear in a semblance of reality, compelling us to open our eyes but it is much more fun if you don’t.

 

The women tell us that they are called Alex and Jean and are looking for the new Alex and Jean, which is disquieting as we have no idea what that means for us, the ‘visited’.

 

Alex whispers in my ear while Jean takes my friend away and I can hear their faint voices, as if through a door. It is an unnerving and profoundly intimate experience having someone inside my head without seeing her, although I have an image of Alex and her presence is palpable.

 

There are thunks and steps, doors opening and closing, distant voices and very close breaths. Throughout the experience, a disturbing soundscape ebbs and flows like waves.

 

Darkfield has so far welcomed 85,000 audience members in Australia and over 170,000 globally. It's best to experience it with two people. You must download the Darkfield Radio App onto your phone then follow the instructions. Even the instructions sound spooky!

 

By Kate Herbert