Unique And Chilling: COMA Review | Zoe Sievwright

Image credit: Mihaela Bodlovic

‍ ★★★★

If you are looking for a show that completely strips away standard theatrical conventions and plunges you into absolute darkness, COMA at Assembly is a deeply intriguing ride. Created by the innovative team at DARKFIELD, this sensory audio experience takes place inside a pitch-black shipping container, stripping away your sight to manipulate your remaining senses with incredible precision. It is a brilliantly executed, uncanny slice of immersive audio theatre that delivers a genuine sense of disorientation, curiosity, and quiet dread right from the moment the lights go out.

‍The setup is brilliantly simple, yet instantly unsettling right from the very start. As you enter the space, you are invited to lie down in one of the clinical white bunk beds lined up inside the container, pop on a pair of high-definition headphones, and follow the instructions to imagine swallowing a small pill before the entire room is plunged into total, pitch-black silence. Using 3D binaural audio technology, the sound design creates a terrifyingly vivid spatial reality. Sounds whisper right into your ear, footsteps seem to pace directly beside your bed, and the eerie sensation of a collective, medically induced coma takes hold of the room. The technical execution is flawless, manipulating your mind into questioning what is real and what is being fed through your headphones.

‍What makes the piece so fascinating is how effectively it plays on the quiet anxieties of surrender, medical intervention, and lost personal control. Lying completely flat in the dark alongside dozens of strangers, you are forced to rely entirely on your imagination to fill in the visual blanks. The soundscape builds a surreal, dreamlike state that feels both hauntingly atmospheric and strangely meditative throughout the entire run time of the show. It is a wonderfully unique concept that pushes the boundaries of traditional performance art, leaving you feeling delightfully unsettled long after you step back out into the bright festival sunlight.

If there is one area where the production could have pushed its immersive boundaries even further, it might have benefited from having a live actor or two physically present within the dark space. Adding subtle live physical interactions or a tangible human presence alongside the audio track could have dialled up the theatrical tension even more and pushed the immersion to a truly extraordinary level.

Nevertheless, COMA remains a hugely enjoyable, uniquely chilling piece of audio theatre. It is a dark, clever, and memorable experience that stands out as one of the most distinctive offerings this year. It is a truly fantastic performance to experience.

COMA was performed at Darkfield COMA at Assembly George Square from 5-31 August as part of Edinburgh Fringe.

‍ ‍By Zoe Sievwright