Created by Darkfield

Factory International at Aviva Studios until 21st September 2025

In the familiar economy cabin of a Airbus passenger plane, the audience are asked to fasten their seatbelts and trust the captain to pilot them through a disorientating journey between two realities with two possible outcomes.

I’ve not been the greatest fan of Manchester’s Aviva Studios’ forays into science fiction and the paranormal. Danny Boyle’s inaugural production, Free Your Mind, a dance reimagining of the Wachowskis’ Matrix franchise, was overblown and overlong. Maxine Peake and Sarah Frankcom’s Robin/Red/Breast was another reimagining, albeit entirely misjudged, of John Griffith Bowen’s seminal 1970 Play for Today.

So it was, that I approached Darkfield’s ‘immersive’ experience, Flight, with decidedly limited expectations.

After wandering around Aviva Studios’ cavernous foyer for several confusing minutes, I was finally ushered out of the building to a forty foot shipping container parked outside the other entrance. So far, so intriguing, and I was reassured that we weren’t in for anything buckling under the weight of having to somehow fill the venue’s alienatingly over-sized performance spaces.

After far too many trigger warnings (essentially spoiling the whole thing), we were ‘boarded’ by a member of the ‘cabin crew’.

The less said about what follows, the better (honestly, just stick your fingers in your ears during the lengthy trigger warning speech) but at just under half an hour this is a thrilling, funny, intriguing, and at times genuinely disturbing ride, not least because most of it takes place in complete darkness.

It’s a beautifully constructed journey, at times making deliciously satirical comments about modern air travel, before flipping to a quantum exploration of existence, expressed through the medium of air terror.

My only caveat is that with a bit more tech – and pricier tickets – the physical aspects of the show could have been taken to even more thrilling extremes.

Verdict: Flight is perhaps not much more than a theme park ride with brains, but it’s hugely enjoyable and well worth popping down to Aviva Studios before it finishes its run on 21st September. 9/10

Martin Jameson

www.ninjamarmoset.com