DARKFIELD - EULOGY Review

For the uninitiated, DARKFIELD are creators of 360 degree audio experiences, which utilise immersive sets, binaural sound, blackout conditions and sensory effects to take guests on an intense theatrical journey. I experienced their latest creation, EULOGY, at Edinburgh Fringe 2025.

As is usually the case with DARKFIELD, EULOGY takes place inside a shipping container. The hotel theme was evident immediately, as we were each given a room card detailing the name of our individual suites. The suites were actually storage cages, such as those you might see being wheeled down a hotel corridor stacked with linen. We sat down inside our suites, donned our headphones, and were plunged into total darkness. In the absence of light, the pin-sharp clarity and verisimilarity of the binaural sounds were deeply disorientating and disconcerting. The story began to unfold.

The premise of EULOGY is deeply esoteric; as you journey through a mysterious ‘hotel’, your guide promises to look after you, and transport you from place to place, implying that you are static yet still conscious. The script conjures an unsettling sense of liminality in the spaces you move through: the inside of a hotel room, a conference room, a pool. Is your consciousness safe here? Unclear. Cryptic lines of dialogue make reference to bizarre concepts. Have you read the pamphlet? Is your speech ready? It’s all delightfully yet frustratingly obscure.

As the experience progresses, and you are moved down to the lower levels, a darker feeling encroaches. There’s something else that could be wheeled down a corridor in the basement of a building; something unmoving. Your fate is sealed, solidified by the presence of a tell-tale smell. As the story draws to a conclusion, your lingering consciousness bears auditory and sensory witness to a grim ending, tinged with some irresistibly dark comedy via a callback to a gimmick deployed earlier in the show.

DARKFIELD deliver some of the most realistic audio simulations you’ll ever experience, and as such, any DARKFIELD experience is sure to be an intense one. EULOGY combines this intensity with a thought-provoking and darkly poetic story, encouraging us to question how an embodied human experience differs from the version of our consciousness that exists solely in the imagination. It’s a challenging and intangible concept, heightened by the vivid storytelling and the unique nature of DARKFIELD’s modus operandi. I can’t wait to see what they do next.