Eulogy @ Summerhall
Darkfield return with their latest shipping container-bound experience, blending an eerie and anxious mood with an extraordinary attention to detail
When it comes to the art of the unseen, Darkfield are visionaries – their latest work, Eulogy, is no exception.
Audience-participants are assigned a room – individual ‘suites’ – in the shape of metal luggage trolleys. Each suite has a name; all boast headsets, cushions and cleaning rotas, signed and dated by some stranger’s hand. Then, absolute darkness.
Your chaperone is allocated using speech-recognition software (which, in turn, speaks to narrative themes of control and consent); a faceless person with whom the participant will soon be navigating a shifting and unreliable hotel. You have been acknowledged, listened to, and in so doing, are, in some horribly indefinable way, responsible for the goings on (or rather, the goings wrong) within the world of the play.
More than one performance exists at any one time, contained in this shipping container, a thing of hulking glamour and mystery stationed outside Summerhall. Binaural technology makes for a sleight of sound. There is a sense of deprivation throughout, and not just of sight, giving the piece all the qualities of an anxiety dream. You are on the very edges of the story. You are on the wrong floor. You are doing something you shouldn’t. You have missed something vital.
There is the ringing of a telephone, the ticking of a clock, the shattering of an all-important ornament. The space is subject to tremors, too, the metal trolleys flexing so that at times the hotel is felt rather than heard. The sound of falling awake is particularly innovative, as are the sudden gusts accompanying the opening of elevator doors. The attention to detail in Darkfield’s work is, as a rule, extraordinary.
However, narratively-speaking, Eulogy is eclipsed by its older siblings – two of which, Seance and Flight, are also at the Edinburgh Fringe this year. It ultimately lacks direction and clarity, particularly in its conclusion. Darkfield’s latest technological innovations make for a vivid and compelling experience, though: Eulogy is a guaranteed trip off the beaten theatrical track.
Eulogy, Summerhall (Terrace), until 28 Aug, hourly between 11am and 9pm, £10-12.50