Fiction, Battersea Arts Centre ★★★★★

Fiction review: Culture Whisper says ★★★★★

Fiction is the second collaboration between David Rosenberg and Glen Neath, after their huge hit,Ring. The creative duo have hit on a winning formula, with their shows taking place in total darkness and taking the audience on the journey through sound alone. The technology is astounding; wearing their headphones you become completely convinced of the location and identity of the voices and sounds surrounding you, constructing an imaginary environment inside your own head.
In this way, these shows can achieve effects that resemble nightmares; indeed, the scenario of Fiction is that the audience drifts off to sleep during a lecture, at which point darkness descends and the voices in your head takes over. 
Fiction is a baffling and unsettling piece of immersive theatre during which every audience member feels entirely isolated in his or her experience. As well as losing any sensory perception of one another during the show, we also found that, afterwards, our memories of what exactly had happened refused to take on a solid form upon which any two people could agree. But whatever, if anything, really did happen in that room, the experience itself is compelling.