Running in parallel with their new show ARCADE at Summerhall, Darkfield’s FLIGHT has previous with Edinburgh Fringe – it debuted here in 2018 and was last been seen at the festival in 2022. The immersive experience is set inside a replica of an Airbus 320 economy cabin, constructed within a 40ft shipping container, with participants taking a randomly assigned seat on one of the aisle.
Once you’re strapped into your seat and have perused the in-flight safety manual and listened to the pre-board safety instructions, FLIGHT takes place in total darkness, like ARCADE, except for a couple of moments of light which I won’t describe for the sake of spoilers.
The following 25 minutes, delivered binaurally through headphones, explore the Many-Worlds Interpretation of quantum mechanics. We are effectively Schrödinger’s cat. ‘Imagine how the cat feels,’ says the pilot. Locked in a box with two potential outcomes: we are alive or we are dead to those people who are not on the flight. Darkfield play with the possibilities of those two realities but without finding much worth saying.
It leans instead of its binaural soundscape to wow participants – the deafening roar of the plane and unfamiliar mechanical screeching booming through the headphones. But with little substance and the dial constantly set to eleven, you come away feeling like nothing has really happened and with a slight ringing in your ears.
Yes, the concept is clever and some of the effects are impressive – no less than when you are briefly taken out of the darkness – but there’s little else to it. Like, ARCADE which I experienced on the same day, I felt disappointed about what could have been.
A potentially illuminating piece of theatre instead feels like a novelty half-hour, short enough for Fringe goers looking to get as many shows into a day as possible to squeeze into an awkwardly shaped gap in their schedule.
Rating: ★★☆☆☆
