Showing @ Summerhall (meet at Victoria Bar), Edinburgh until Sat 24 Aug @ 22:00
If you should be passing Leith Walk at night and see a group of black-cloaked figures striding in the direction of Pilrig Park, fear not. You have not stumbled into the midst of an arcane cult but an intrepid audience braving the eccentricities of the Scottish weather to see Vision Mechanics‘ outdoor production Dark Matter.
The cloaks, as it happens, are also there to help the audience blend into the shadows, for this is a story grounded in darkness and rooted in the earth. Inspired by the myth of Apollo and Daphne, Dark Matter is a monologue delivered by an impassioned, obsessive young woman (Emma Anderson). Her love is as vulnerable as it is primal, and as capable of destruction as redemption.
This production is all about sound. Each audience member is provided with a headset on entrance to the garden and accompanied throughout the journey by Tam Treanor‘s haunting soundscape. It makes for a deeply, at times uncomfortably, intimate experience as we hear not just birdsong and raindrops but each trembling sigh and choking gasp Anderson makes as she gradually comes undone.