The Team Behind Darkfield Is Bringing a New Sci-Fi Dance Performance in a Haulage Truck to Australia

Eerie things happen in shipping containers when Realscape Productions is around. Across the country, the team has been creeping everyone out with its immersive installations for a few years now, with Séance, Flight, Eulogy and Coma each serving up different unnerving experiences. Sensory deprivation, simulating sitting in an aircraft cabin when events turn unsettling, wandering through a labyrinthine hotel, falling into a dream state in a bunk bed: they're all part of the Darkfield suite, terrifyingly so. Next up from the Realscape Productions crew comes a dance with sci-fi, this time in a 40-foot haulage truck.

Future Cargo sees Darkfield's David Rosenberg join forces with UK-based choreographer Frauke Requardt on an otherworldly outdoor performance, which will make its Australian premiere at 2024's Adelaide Fringe from Friday, February 16–Saturday, March 17. The aim: combining a vast spectacle with intimacy, and putting on a dance show filled with shiny aliens and seduced humans that will lure in all kinds of audiences, even if watching dance isn't normally high on your to-do list.

So, as attendees sit in the open air at twilight, the truck will roll up its side to reveal a machine, which starts a mysterious process. Cue power surges, electromagnetic waves and making contact, with viewers listening in via binaural sound while wearing headphones.

"We've come together to develop Future Cargo because David and I are constantly fascinated by how to connect performance and audiences in unique ways in public space," explains Requardt.

"By working with different architectural constraints and inviting audiences to discover bold and beautiful contemporary dance in and amongst them, we hope to ignite a passion for the arts in people who wouldn't usually watch dance, while also captivating those already in love with the art form."

So far, only an Adelaide run is confirmed — but cross your fingers that Realscape will tour its latest production, as it has with Séance, Flight, Eulogy and Coma.

"David and Frauke have developed a show unlike anything that has ever played in Australia before. We know Australians have developed an appetite for multidimensional experiences, and Future Cargo brings something new to Adelaide Fringe, creating a spectacle through dance, lighting, binaural sound and science fiction. We can't wait to watch Adelaide fall in love with a new way to experience dance at the Garden of Unearthly Delights come February," said Realscape Productions producer Amy Johnson.

Future Cargo will premiere at Adelaide Fringe 2024 from Friday, February 16–Saturday, March 17 at the festival's Garden of Unearthly Delights — head to the fest website for further details and tickets.

Images: Camilla Greenwell / Henry Curtis.