DARKFIELD’S ‘DOUBLE’ CONFIRMED TO JOIN THE OFFICIAL SELECTION FOR THE VENICE INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL 2020
- First ever audio-only experience to be shown at Venice Film Festival
- 2500 people worldwide have experienced DOUBLE in two weeks
- London-based AR company’s run extended into September due to popular demand
- Evening performances to begin on United States time zones from mid-August
Announced today across Europe and round the globe, DARKFIELD RADIO’s first broadcast DOUBLE is confirmed for the Venice International Film Festival, the first ever audio-only experience in the programme. DOUBLE is part of Venice’s ‘Best of XR’ (eXtended Reality a catch all term for immersive productions including AR and VR) category and represents an innovative shift for the immersive theatre company, from physical installations to home entertainment as a reaction to the ongoing COVID19 pandemic.
Alongside this announcement DARKFIELD are excited to announce Darkfield Radio and DOUBLE performances will open up to the US with evening performances added for Eastern and Pacific time zones .
Darkfield Radio, a groundbreaking new project, brings DARKFIELD’s innovative audio experiences to audiences at home. DOUBLE, the first ever audio only experience to be part of the official selection for the Venice International Film Festival, will be shown as part of the ‘Best of XR’ category usually held in a site specific island in the Italian town, it will instead be hosted on well-known XR gaming platform ‘VR Chat’ opening up the festival XR programme to audiences worldwide.
DOUBLE, a strange and curious world built from 360 degree binaural sound, is a troubling exercise in familiarity for two people sitting opposite each other on either side of their kitchen table. It asks ‘‘everyone to be who they say they are”. DOUBLE explores the Capgras delusion, a condition in which the sufferer is convinced that a loved one has been replaced by an exact replica with malign intentions. This follows the theme of Darkfield’s previous shows, exploring ideas around Drug Placebos, the Multiverse and the unknown beyond the veil.
The experience is communal – not only are audiences experiencing the show in pairs, but the show is replicated in hundreds of rooms across the world with a set performance time, much like going to the cinema for a screening, or a theatre for a play. The DARKFIELD RADIO app, available on IOS and Android is designed to deliver the show at a set time and date. Part of The magic of the show is the ability for Darkfield to deliver a powerfully immersive experience with just a pair of regular headphones, a mobile phone, and a kitchen table.
“By turning your house into a stage, this one, fleetingly, becomes a doppelganger for the real thing” ★★★★ The Guardian
“Darkfield prove themselves arch manipulator” Lyn Gardner, Stage Door
“Conceptually, this is sorcery” – ★★★★ Reviews Hub
“…What has been created fills [the audience’s] senses and the room around them“ – ★★★★ The Stage
“all the classic horror tropes are here as the sinister soundscape sweeps you up in a wave of irrational fear” ★★★★ Time out
“your kitchen – so achingly well known to you – becomes an eerily defamiliarised place” ★★★★ Metro
DARKFIELD creates new innovative work at the forefront of technology and theatre, utilising binaural sound and sensory effects. Previous acclaimed pieces SEANCE, FLIGHT and COMA, sited in shipping containers, originally premiered at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and have since toured the UK and Australia. DARKFIELD has so far welcomed 167500+ audience members globally and with DARKFIELD RADIO, will now reach even larger audiences worldwide in their homes. The Darkfield Radio App is powered by Wiretapper, and funded by the Arts Council for England.
Tickets are available via the DARKFIELD website and will be signposted within the ‘Best of XR’ at the Venice Film Festival on ‘VR Chat’.
Shows run every Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday at 20:00 & 21:30. PLEASE BE AWARE SHOWS ARE 14+.
Experienced through the DARKFIELD RADIO app available for android and iphone.
NOTES TO EDITORS
CREDITS
PERFORMER Chris Brett Bailey
DIRECTORS David Rosenberg & Glen Neath
WRITER Glen Neath
SOUND & TECH David Rosenberg
PRODUCER Victoria Eyton
PRODUCTION COORDINATOR Sara Codrington
IMAGERY Alex Purcell
For press information, images and interview requests please contact Miriam Attwood miriam@storytellingpr.com 07825642225
Venice International Film Festival
Wednesday 2 September 2020 – Saturday 12 September.
https://www.labiennale.org/en/cinema/2020
Best of XR
A popular new strand of Venice International Film Festival screening the best of XR / VR / AR from around the world.
VR Chat
https://www.vrchat.com/ create and play in virtual worlds
PRAISE FOR DARKFIELD CONTAINER SHOWS
“[Darkfield] harness the very Uncertainty Of Pretending, and In Doing So Create An Experience That’s Properly
Exhilarating. It’s A Perfectly Programmed High-art Theme Park Ride That Spits You Out Into The Sunlight Feeling Palpably, Certainly, alive.”
Exeunt Magazine
SEANCE PREMIERED 2017 EDINBURGH FESTIVAL FRINGE
★★★★
Natasha Tripney, The Stage
‘It’s skin-tingling, breath-quickening stuff’
★★★★
Lauren Mooney, The Stage
‘Perfectly contained and completely absorbing, spine-tingling’
FLIGHT PREMIERED AT SUMMER 2018 AT LATITUDE AND THE EDINBURGH FESTIVAL FRINGE
★★★★
Hannah Wright, The Wee Review
‘Outstanding…an all-consuming experience that takes you away from the busy streets of Edinburgh and into a different reality’
★★★★
Niki Boyle, The Scotsman
‘…Absolutely unsettling. The sound and production design are both excellent – in addition to the authentic interior, boarding passes and Kafkaesque safety cards are distributed, all of which enhance the creeping unease.’
COMA PREMIERED AT THE 2019 EDINBURGH FESTIVAL FRINGE
★★★★
Fest Mag
’An immersive experience that takes audiences to another realm’
The Independent
‘If you’ve never experienced one of Darkfield’s shows, absolutely go: it is technically astonishing, completely uncanny, and deeply unnerving. You start to question your own senses. You may start to feel a rising panic. It’s not for faint-hearted.’
THE INVISIBLE
In 2020 DARKFIELD partnered with Universal Pictures to create ‘The Invisible’ – a bespoke experience in a container created to partner the launch of Universal’s ‘The Invisible Man’. The experience was sited at Universal Citywalk, Los Angeles, and gave audience members a unique experience inspired by the film.
