REVIEW: Facility 111: A Government Experiment – A Quiet Experiment in How We See Without Seeing

©️Photo by Cam Harle

What if a story unfolded in absolute darkness, not to awaken your other senses, but to sharpen the one that lives entirely inside your mind?

In Facility 111, Inge-Vera Lipsius invites the audience to sit in pitch-black silence and build two cities—one of glass, one of sand—entirely from language. Developed with the Soho Theatre Lab and marking Lipsius’s Edinburgh Fringe debut, the show operates under the frame of a sci-fi government experiment. But unlike most immersive audio theatre, this piece doesn’t aim to simulate or surround. Instead, it turns sharply inward, asking the listener not to feel, but to visualise. Not to follow a character’s journey, but to reconstruct a world through memory, association, and abstract connection.

This is what makes Facility 111 quietly radical. It’s not a sensory experience in the usual Fringe sense; it’s not about stimulating touch or triggering surprise. Instead, it gives space for the mind to wander and to fill in the blanks. If most audio theatre tries to replace sight with sound, Lipsius leans into something more literary and meditative.

That said, the piece’s tone currently leans a little too far into neutrality. The narrative voice, at times, falls into the rhythm of guided meditation or institutional training tapes, a choice that aligns with the dystopian frame, but can grow monotonous across 45 minutes. The potential for more tension, confusion, or instability in the sound world feels rich and largely untapped.

Still, the ambition is clear. And the fact that the show refuses to simplify its questions or its aesthetic is a strength. Facility 111 doesn’t offer a clear narrative arc. It’s not meant to.

As audio storytelling continues to evolve, Facility 111 stands as an invitation, not just to listen, but to imagine. And that, in a Fringe full of noise, is a powerful thing.

★★★1/2

For more information, please visit: https://www.edfringe.com/tickets/whats-on/facility-111-a-government-experiment

Credits

Staging, Text & Performer: Inge-Vera Lipsius
Sound & Video Designers: Sonny Lawson (video/sound), Ábel Esbenshade (sound)
Special Thanks: Mina Zahine, Cullen McFater, James Linville, and those who helped but preferred to remain anonymous
Press Manager: Jonathan Walfisz & Christopher Spring
Poster Designer: Arsen Mollakaev
Editors & Design Support: Eunchan Choi, Matthew Oxley, Wil Pritchard
Photographers: René Lazový, Cam Harle