Such an incredible experience!
There was a buzz of anticipation about the crowd as we queued outside the iconic Southwark Cathedral. I’m guessing the word had got around that In The Dark was the event not to miss. The frisson was even hotter inside, writes Michael Holland.
Lights were dimmed, just soft mauves and purple lamps uplighting the columns and arches. We found our seats and a ghostly voice from an unseen place explained the sequence of events. She told us to put on our eye masks. We did. There was an immediate shutdown of sight and sound. Then a tom-tom sounded up near the altar. A stringed instrument joined, but closer. A voice. Two voices. A piano. Was that a harp? Surely not, but yes, it was. A clarinet softly played just behind and moved away, the soulful sound drifting away with it. The songs the thirty musicians played sound familiar, though, oddly, out of this world. Violins kicked in. A choir overwhelmed before fading away. Then silence. I don’t know how long it lasted but it felt like too long before a chant came from somewhere yonder, followed by a trombone next to me. Silence came again.
Then, I knew a song. The lyrics were unmistakable, though the tune was somehow different. It was Kate Bush’s Running Up That Hill and… And silence.
The quiet between each song was just as important as the sounds themselves.
After a time of more magical, sonic experience in the dark, I heard singers: ‘I, I wish you could swim. Like the dolphins, like dolphins can swim…’ The words struck a nerve but the music surrounding them didn’t. I knew I knew them but they didn’t match with anything in my mind. I concentrated as the choir continued, and the instruments did their own thing all around me. Eventually, I got it. The answer came to me just before the giveaway line came. Then silence.
At one point, the silence came and no music started up, but a voice whispered, ‘Ladies and gentlemen, you can now take off your eye masks.’
As my eyes adjusted to light, I turned to Rene, who had accompanied me. She was in some kind of trance-like shock. As our eyes met, she mouthed a silent, ‘Wow!’. A few seconds later she could speak and said, ‘Amazing. I’m overwhelmed.’
At last we could see the musicians. They reprised their opening number and we could see the choreography of the performance, how they moved silently in stockinged feet with their instruments. The magicians were revealing how they performed the magic.
Later that night, after cycling home, Rene messaged again: ‘Thank you so much for such an incredible experience! I loved it! Cycled back singing Running Up That Hill, and dodging all the fireworks – it was like a f*****g war zone! Thank you.’
The In The Dark Tour continues to more centuries-old, iconic buildings with great acoustics.
