COMA isn’t really a show you watch. It is something you surrender yourself to – and how much you enjoy that prospect may determine whether you should enter its shipping container at all.
DARKFIELD invites a small audience to lie in metal bunk beds, put on headphones and prepare for complete darkness. After that, the less you know the better.
What follows uses remarkably effective 360-degree audio and sensory effects to play with your perception of the space around you. Deprived of sight, your brain begins doing much of the work. At times I knew perfectly well that I was safely lying in a bunk while my body was responding rather differently. My heart was pounding strongly enough that I consciously used slow breathing to calm myself.
The audio is particularly impressive. Sounds appear to move around the container and come unnervingly close, creating the sensation that this is happening specifically to you rather than to a room full of people. Other senses are quietly recruited until you begin questioning which sensations are real and which your increasingly suggestable brain has supplied for itself.
This is also why COMA isn’t for everybody. DARKFIELD’s warnings about complete darkness, claustrophobia and potentially triggering sensory experiences should be taken seriously.
If immersive psychological horror gives you an adrenaline kick, COMA is an ingenious experiment in just how easily our senses can deceive us. If it doesn’t, you may find these 30 minutes more terrifying than entertaining.
Darkfield Coma: Assembly George Square, until August 31
