They fell in love, and set about terrifying people in their homes

“At first we were wondering about the impact of losing control over the other senses, which is what our container shows strive for. This is just audio. But if anything it’s made it more impactful. People are in their own safe space, they know what’s in the kitchen – but we’re able to disrupt that.“

Their latest, Eternal, is written for one person alone in bed, exploring the “quandary of eternal life”. Before that, Visitors was a show for two people to experience together in their living room, standing 3m apart, and attended by the undead.

“We’ve had people who couldn’t sleep [after listening to the show],” says Johnson. “We had one person who broke up with their boyfriend. We got a great response, really exciting. And in a way a relief, as well.“

Alexander says their intention was never to terrify people. After their first show they found “people were crying a bit too much – that got toned down a little”, he says.

Johnson adds they want to aim for a more “psychological” tone than a “jump scare”. And she was surprised at the range of responses: some people scare themselves, some laugh, and others simply find the experience “interesting”.

Johnson and Alexander met in Britain a few years ago – she’s from digital marketing, he was in theatre. They paired up romantically and professionally, moving back to Australia to launch the container shows.

The Darkfield series was created by a British team, David Rosenberg and Glen Neath, formerly of the company SHUNT that was at the forefront of the British immersive theatre boom in the past decade.

“We saw [Darkfield show] Séance three years ago and really enjoyed it, and felt it would be really cool to have something like that in Australia, so we got in touch with them,” says Alexander. “The creative partnership started from there.“

In the longer term they hope to build a local creative team, using knowledge and skills from the Darkfield collaboration to create new, bespoke Australian experiences with a local cast.

They also want to bring in extra technological elements, perhaps giving audiences an element of control and interaction, creating a “virtual reality through audio”.

And they want to continue to explore the potential of sound, which Alexander believes is one of the most important, but often overlooked, parts of any production.

“If you watch a horror film on mute it’s not horror any more,” he says. “Sound is such a powerful thing. It builds suspense and tension, and it makes the experience.

“There’s a fine line in how far you can go. We try to make it as if the audio is happening around you, rather than you’re just listening.“