Okay, let me start by flagging that though I suffer from a visceral aversion to horror in all forms, I was also cursed with unquenchable curiosity. This puts me in a right pickle as the latest event pinging on my FOMO-meter is an immersive theatre installation called Séance so at this point I’m just resigned to the fact that I’ll never sleep again.
Now, we all know what a séance is. We’ve seen Poltergeist (or if you’re me, you read the Wiki entry) and we know that whenever that word pops up on the side of shipping container something wicked follows. The word ‘séance’ literally translates to mean ‘session’, which calms me down just a not at all.
Here’s how it works. Participants go into the container, take a seat and put on a set of head phones. Leaving their hands flat on the table, they receive ‘suggestible information’ through the head sets for 20 minutes while sitting in complete darkness. This doesn’t sound too scary until you realise that the whole experience is more like a psychological experiment to mess with us, because though the only senses being engaged are touch and sound, the audio is designed to make punters conjure up imagery and question what is real and what isn’t. So, instead of genuinely conjuring the supernatural, Séance's creepy weirdness comes from INSIDE OUR OWN HEADS. Looks like I’ll be needing these.
Being that it all goes down in the pitch black of a shipping container, the organisers don’t recommend it for the claustrophobic or anyone suffering a heart condition. Brisbanites can get their taste of the mental mindfuck from 8th until 29th September when Séance sets up at Treasury Brisbane Arcadia in South Bank. For booking details, venue details, and everything else you need to know, click here.
The details
What: Séance: A Performance In Complete Darkness
Where: Treasury Brisbane Arcadia, South Bank
When: 8 September-29 September
Tickets: $20, available here.
Image credit: Séance