You are now able to pay perfectly good money to experience a plane crash. And just in time for Christmas. Not quite sure why you would want to do so but hey, that’s just me. UK Group, Darkfield, has taken an immersive theatre experience involving a plane crash to Melbourne, Australia. That “immersive theatre experience” is called Flight and it is making a bit of an impact down by the murky Yarra River.

Who's behind this?

Darkfield is a theatrical group that deals in fear and anxiety. They’ve also produced a work called Seance which advised pregnant women, kids, claustrophobes, and those with heart or back conditions not to attend. A check of Darkfield’s website reveals they are taking this for a spin around Australia once they’ve finished putting people off flying for life.

Darkfield’s performances are held in total darkness in forty-foot shipping containers. They’ve parked this shipping container in Melbourne down by the Yarra River at Queensbridge Square. The interior of the shipping container looks exactly like an aircraft cabin. You fasten your seatbelts, watch the safety video, and wait for the lights to go out.

More sophisticated than a flight simulation gone wrong

This is a little more sophisticated than a flight simulator going down for a hard landing. The production is based around the use of binaural sound. Binaural sound only works on headphones and Darkfield uses special headphones. Sound is immediate and intimate. Metal sounds like it is being ripped from the aircraft, grinding and howling. It’s all very reassuring

The binaural technology employed gives the sound focused  directionality - meaning you have the sensation of things physically occurring around you, rather than just in your headphones 

And apparently, the sounds are uncannily real, down to the wailing of kids in the cabin. The Guardian reports that over half an hour you sit through two “surreal and intersecting realities” - in one the plane lands okay in the other, not okay.

Darkfield’s performance is designed to play on base fears, stimulate primal responses, and cause your adrenalin to peak.

Is the whole thing necessary?

The performance is fast gaining a reputation in Melbourne, especially among people who enjoy having their blood pressure toyed with. It has been criticized as a very physical experience but kind of devoid of depth. Why would you cater to people who want to know what it’s like to die?

When you read the accounts of plane crash survivors, one of the key themes that emerge centers on sound. Some survivors refer to grinding and crunching sounds. One man spoke of people screaming and frantically yelling out. Others refer to an eerie silence. One woman said it was the most silence she had ever experienced.

Whether Flight is for you, well, you know yourself best. Maybe, if you’ve got a flight booked on the weekend you should give it a miss. After Melbourne, the performance is going on tour around Australia. And after that, Darkfield has something new in mind, a production called Coma. Coma will be about being in a coma. That could actually be useful on some plane rides.