Séance, this year’s Halloween offering by the Royal Exchange Theatre, is a difficult production to review , as the less you know going in, the better the experience you’ll have watching it. A mix of Victorian melodrama, experimental performance and a fairground ghost train, it’s unlikely it will remind you of anything you’ve seen at the Royal Exchange before. For a start, it technically isn’t in the Royal Exchange at all but in a shipping container right in the middle of St Ann’s Square.
After a warning for anyone claustrophobic or afraid of the dark, me and the rest of the audience were ushered into the shipping crate, which had been transformed into a gloomy Victorian parlour, complete with a single iron bell hanging from the ceiling, ready to help us communicate with the other side. After squeezing around a cramped table and being told to wear one of the many sets of headphones hanging from the walls, the lamps went out and the séance began.
I won’t go into too many details about what went on once the doors were closed, other than to say that the show deliberately confuses and unsettles its audience right from the start. With the container now in complete darkness each of my remaining senses were expertly manipulated until I had no clue what was real or what was fake. The entire room seemed to shake as voices cried out from all around me, each trying to contact the dead. Like any good séance, this production leaves you questioning the reality around you, while giving you a very close brush with the supernatural.
If you really chose to think about it, it would be fairly easy to work out just what was going on, but that’s not really the point. I found it best to just go along with the ride and get into the 'spirit' of things
Whether or not you’ll enjoy Séance will depend more on your idea of fun rather than any merits or shortcomings of the show. As a recreation of a Victorian séance, an autumn ghost story and a trip back to a time when the world seemed filled with mysteries, it’s extremely accomplished, even finding time for a few moments of humour in its brief running time. However I can imagine sitting in the pitch black with 20 strangers while another group of strangers do their very best to terrify you would be the very definition of Hell for many people. For those with stronger nerves, Séance offers a chance to get as close as possible to whatever lurks in the darkness, close enough even for the most macabre among us.
Reviewer - Richard Gorick
on - 26/10/18
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