Disorienting, spooky, and a bit camp, Séance is a twenty-minute, pitch-black experience in a small shipping container outside Summerhall. Is anything more Fringe than that? Not for those who are distressed by complete darkness or claustrophobia, this show is less “theatre” than it is a sonic creation of horror Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response (ASMR).
Upon entering the small “theatre,” audience members sit side-by-side on either side of a long table. Headphones hang behind each seat. Lights and bells hang over the table. Headphones on, lights out, hands flat on the table...and the séance begins. The motion of the table combined with the binaural quality of the headphones makes it difficult to discern if what you are hearing is in real life or in the recording, but that’s wherein lies the fun.
No fourth wall present in the slightest, this completely immersive piece makes you feel a bit like the headless mannequin on top of this shipping container - alone, motionless, and wondering what’s happened in the space between your ears.
A kooky way to spend twenty minutes, this tech-tricked mind warp is suitable for Summerhall. Séance makes your question your senses and your beliefs, surprisingly not so much as in the supernatural but in the suggestibility of voices, of social cues, of trust in strangers, of your own conviction in the dark.
16-26 August at 20 minutes intervals 13.00 to 21.20 age recommend 16+