Sauna Theatre Archives - North West End UK

25Aug

By Greg HolsteadNo Comments

Scotland

Aufguss x Nils Frahm – Sauna Theatre

My sixth and final visit to Summerhall’s Sauna Theatre this year was an unusual one in that I attended with my wife, the only time I shared one of these sauna experiences with her. It proved a rather lovely way to round off my time in what has surely been one of this Fringe’s most intriguing new venues. With around 35 people attending, the sauna felt comfortably populated rather than crowded. Aufguss x Nils Frahm takes the familiar ritual I had encountered across my previous visits, but this time sets it against the music of composer Nils Frahm, ranging from the neo-classical Wintermusik (2009), through Spaces (2013), to Graz (2021). Frahm’s combination of piano, electronica and more rhythmic material proved particularly well suited to the gra...

Mysteries of the Picts – Sauna Theatre Summerhall

22Aug

By Greg HolsteadNo Comments

Scotland

Mysteries of the Picts – Sauna Theatre Summerhall

There is something wonderfully Fringe about sitting in a sauna with 47 other souls while being invited to contemplate whether the Picts were partial to a good steam. Mysteries of the Picts explores not only Pictish culture but the much longer history of sauna itself, looking at archaeological evidence for sweathouses and communal bathing stretching back thousands of years. When it comes specifically to the Picts, things become rather more speculative. There is no firm archaeological evidence that they used saunas, although the production reasonably suggests that sacred gathering places may subsequently have disappeared beneath churches, civic buildings and other later development. It is interesting, although the history and archaeology remain somewhat vague. Where the produc...

Morning Sauna Rave – Sauna Theatre Summerhall

15Aug

By Greg HolsteadNo Comments

Scotland

Morning Sauna Rave – Sauna Theatre Summerhall

There is something slightly perverse about setting an alarm to go to a rave. Admittedly, Morning Sauna Rave does not start until 10.30am, but during the Edinburgh Fringe that still feels positively dawn-like. A sunny walk across Edinburgh past Arthur’s Seat certainly helps, and by the time I am stripped down to swimwear and heading into the heat, the prospect of starting the day with music, steam and a cold plunge seems increasingly sensible. This is my latest visit to Sauna Theatre, the extraordinary temporary structure occupying Summerhall’s rear courtyard, on the very spot where Paines Plough’s Roundabout was launched in 2014. Designed for 80 people, it is both the UK’s largest sauna and its first purpose-built sauna arts centre. Having visited before, I remain im...

Bubble Schmeisis (remixed) – Sauna Theatre, Summerhall

14Aug

By Greg HolsteadNo Comments

Scotland

Bubble Schmeisis (remixed) – Sauna Theatre, Summerhall

Of all this year’s Sauna Theatre propositions at Summerhall, Bubble Schmeisis (Remixed) perhaps feels the most like theatre. There is good reason for that. Nick Cassenbaum’s one-man show was already a sell-out Fringe and international success long before anybody decided to put the audience into swimsuits and turn up the heat. Ten years on, it has found what feels like its natural home. This is not simply an old stage show squeezed into a sauna. It feels like a genuine evolution of the piece, with Nick now performing the story inside the very environment he has spent years describing. And the experience begins before we even get there. Live klezmer music, created for the show by Daniel Gouly and Josh Middleton, accompanies us as we wait to enter and continues inside, becom...

Aufguss X The Waves – Sauna Theatre, Summerhall

11Aug

By Greg HolsteadNo Comments

Scotland

Aufguss X The Waves – Sauna Theatre, Summerhall

My God, this is refreshing. And at the Edinburgh Fringe, by the middle of the day I have walked several miles, watched several shows and hauled a bag full of chargers, notebooks and assorted electronic paraphernalia, refreshing is no small achievement. Sauna Theatre is Summerhall's latest experiment in what theatre might actually be. There is a little faff involved. Swimming trunks, flip flops and a couple of towels aren't normally essential reviewing equipment. But changing cubicles and lockers are provided, valuables disappear safely inside, water is handed out and soon a collection of strangers are standing around in varying degrees of undress waiting to see what happens next. What happens next is a sauna. A proper one. I like heat, so naturally I head for the top ben...