Fringe-goers can feel the heat during performances in a pop-up sauna this summer. A morning ‘sauna rave’ is among the events in the Sauna Theatre programme at Summerhall Arts.
Pop-Up Sauna at Edinburgh Fringe
A pop-up sauna is set to host events during the Fringe this August. Sauna Theatre, said to be the UK’s largest sauna, will sit in the courtyard of the Summerhall arts venue in Edinburgh and will offer a wide-ranging programme of events.
Visitors will be invited to don swimwear and enjoy the heat as they attend shows such as a literary salon and a “morning sauna rave”.
What is Sauna Theatre?
Organisers said Sauna Theatre brings together a programme of Aufguss – an immersive experience using heat, essential oils, “towel work” and storytelling within the “soothing heat of sauna”. It is the first project from Sauna Sessions Arts Club and has been founded by James Grieve and Lucy Osborne, who are its co-creative directors.
They said: “We are beyond excited to bring two things we are deeply passionate about together in the UK’s first Sauna Theatre. We know profoundly the power of theatre to connect people, fire imaginations, broaden horizons and engender happiness. We think combining the enrichment of art and culture with the incredible health and wellbeing boost of sauna will double the benefits and double the joy. It is thrilling to be launching this new pop-up space on the very same spot we launched Roundabout in 2014 at a venue and festival that means so much to us. We’re so excited to welcome Edinburgh audiences to relax, revive and be inspired in Sauna Theatre at Summerhall Arts.”
Venue and Programme
The 80-seat Sauna Theatre will feature benches in a horseshoe configuration set around stoves. The programme of events also includes Aufguss x The Waves, described as a “bewitching reimagining of Virginia Woolf’s masterpiece in a sauna”, and Mysteries Of The Picts which explores mysterious stories of ancient Scotland.
Mr Grieve said while this will be the first venue of its type in the UK, sauna theatre is a long-established art form elsewhere in Europe. “There are huge sauna theatres purpose-built in Italy and Germany, in lots of parts of eastern Europe and Scandinavia,” he said. “We’re really taking that idea and bringing it to the UK. The thing that really excites us about that is, of course, the UK does have some of the world’s greatest theatre artists. We’re really good at making theatre, so the excitement for us is introducing our incredible theatre industry to sauna as a new space in which to make work and to take audiences on magical journeys.”
Summerhall Arts Collaboration
Sam Gough, chief executive of Summerhall Arts, said: “We couldn’t be more excited to be collaborating with Lucy and James to bring this ambitious Aufguss project here. It will take over our rear courtyard this Fringe. It is a brilliant, brave and fun programme of work delivered in the most beautiful and innovative way – could not be more Summerhall Arts. Imagine spending the Fringe ingesting this great work whilst expelling all of the stress and toxins from your body. Sheer genius. What better way to develop our space, in our second year of reimagining everything we do here? Where is my towel?”
Tickets went on sale at noon on Friday at summerhallarts.co.uk, and can be bought from May 6 at edfest.com.
