Flight

If you ever wondered what it feels like to travel on board an aeroplane without ever leaving the ground, Flight is the show for you.

Sat in a metal shipping container that resembles the inside of a passenger aircraft, complete with blue seats set in threes and an overhead luggage compartment, audience members are given one opportunity to leave before the immersive experience begins, after which the interior is enveloped in pitch darkness so dense that it is impossible to see your hand in front of your face, let alone the person beside you. Presented by Darkfield (the innovative devisers behind Séance) who expertly stage ominous performances where audiences become fully engaged, Flight is also claustrophobic and not for the faint-hearted. Announcements and safety instructions can be heard through headphones, again completely mimicking travel journeys.

The entire flight is simulated, whereby sounds can be heard of babies crying and passengers conversing, along with other common noises. The container’s motion detectors mimic the aircraft turbulence perfectly, so you continually have to remind yourself you aren’t flying thousands of feet above.

The experience can feel very distressing (that’s the point), with the jet spiralling out of control, and it is tempting to remove the headphones as the mind struggles with the opposing feelings and emotions. Creepy factors are incorporated into the show, like how the pilot muses about crashing the plane into the ocean, while cabin crew-members whisper in one side of the ear, blurring the lines between reality and imagination.

The piece is inspired by Austrian physicist Edwin Schrödinger’s famous cat experiment, and by the climactic end you aren’t sure if you’re alive or dead, and it is a gruelling 30 minute experience that is not suitable for those with a phobia of flying, but one that you can’t help but recommend, if only for the absolute terror it induces.

Selina Begum
Photo: Mihaela Bodlovic

Flight is at Vehicle Venues from 20^th until 27^th February 2019. For further information or to book visit the show’s festival page here.

Read more reviews from our Vault Festival 2019 coverage here.

For further information about the event visit the Vault Festival website here.

Watch the trailer for Flight here: