Andy Devaney
Sauna Theatre is arriving at the 2026 Edinburgh Festival Fringe with the sort of idea that makes you check your calendar, your swimming costume, and possibly your blood pressure. The UK’s largest sauna is being purpose-built as a home for theatre, art, music, literature and Aufguss, turning Summerhall Arts’ rear courtyard into a venue where the audience does not so much take a seat as gently poach itself in culture.
This is the first project from Sauna Sessions Arts Club, the new company founded by director James Grieve and designer Lucy Osborne, who previously designed and launched Paines Plough’s Roundabout. That alone gives the venture a bit of theatre pedigree. But Sauna Theatre is not simply a stage with a thermostat. It is an 80-person sauna created to host live performance, immersive ritual and wellness-led storytelling in one of the Fringe’s most experimental settings.
In other words, Edinburgh is about to get a venue where reviews may include the words “beautifully staged” and “I have never needed a cold plunge more urgently.”
A New Kind Of Fringe Venue
The Edinburgh Festival Fringe has never been short of brave ideas. Some arrive in black box theatres. Some appear in cellars. Some involve mime, puppetry, interpretive dance or all three, often before lunch.
Sauna Theatre, however, brings a different atmosphere entirely. Its programme blends theatre, spoken word, music, literature and Aufguss, the European sauna ritual that uses heat, essential oils, towel work and storytelling to create an immersive sensory performance.
The result is a venue built not just for watching, but for feeling. Heat, scent, sound, movement and steam all become part of the show. There is no hiding behind a programme booklet here. The room itself is in on the act.
Why Sauna Theatre Fits The Moment
The timing is shrewd. Sauna culture is having a proper moment in the UK, with public saunas reportedly doubling year-on-year since 2018. People are chasing the high-low rhythm of heat and cold, the reset button of steam, the communal glow of sitting somewhere warm with strangers and somehow leaving slightly more human.
Sauna Theatre leans directly into that boom, but gives it a cultural twist. The sauna environment is said to increase endorphins, relax muscles and encourage blood flow, creating the kind of focused, heightened state that could make audiences more open to performance.
That is the clever bit. This is wellness without the pious sermon. Art without the stiff-backed reverence. Fringe theatre without the hard plastic chair that attacks your spine like a committee decision.
From Morning Raves To Virginia Woolf
The programme is broad enough to tempt both sauna loyalists and Fringe diehards. There are morning sessions built around chilled tunes and good vibes, plus a Morning Sauna Rave for those who believe the best way to start the day is with DJs, endorphins and an ice bath sharp enough to make your ancestors gasp.
Nick Cassenbaum’s sell-out Fringe hit Bubble Schmeisis (Remixed) returns in a sauna setting, mixing steam, klezmer and ritual in a story of belonging. There is also a literary salon, a reimagining of Virginia Woolf’s The Waves, and Mysteries of the Picts, which uses smoke, scent and steam to summon the sweathouses and forgotten rituals of ancient Scotland.
For those wanting the full heat-and-performance spectacle, International Aufguss Masters will bring some of the world’s leading Aufguss artists to Edinburgh, with daily line-ups announced in advance on social channels.
The Shows Announced For Sauna Theatre
Get Set For The Day Sauna Session offers a softer entry point: chilled tunes, good vibes and the chance to ease into the day without being spiritually mugged by your inbox.
Morning Sauna Rave is the opposite: DJs, ecstatic heat and ice baths, which sounds like a nightclub designed by a cardiologist with a sense of humour.
Bubble Schmeisis (Remixed) brings Nick Cassenbaum’s much-loved Fringe hit into the steam, conjuring Canning Town Schvitz through live klezmer, ritual and memory.
Lunch Break Luxuriate Lit Salon turns literature into something warmer and looser, with stories and radical ideas floating through the heat.
Aufguss x The Waves reimagines Virginia Woolf through dance, heat, scent, sound and light.
Mysteries of the Picts looks backwards into ancient Scotland, using the sauna as a vessel for ritual, history and atmosphere.
International Aufguss Masters gives audiences access to elite Aufguss artists, combining choreography, storytelling, steam and scent.
Sauna Sessions Arts Club – The Hottest Club In Town wraps theatre, comedy, DJs, cold plunge and special guests into one sweaty, sociable Fringe party.
Summerhall Arts Finds Its Hottest Courtyard Yet
Summerhall Arts has long had the look of a place where odd, brilliant things are encouraged to happen before anyone sensible can stop them. That makes it a natural home for Sauna Theatre.
The project will sit in Summerhall’s rear courtyard throughout August, giving the venue a centrepiece that feels part performance space, part wellness retreat, part social experiment.
James Grieve and Lucy Osborne, founders and Co-Creative Directors of Sauna Sessions Arts Club, 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.’
A Fringe Experiment With Real Warmth
What makes Sauna Theatre compelling is not just its novelty, although there is plenty of that. It is the way the project reframes what a performance venue can be. Instead of asking audiences to sit still, silent and separate, it invites them into a shared physical state.
That could make the work feel more intimate. More memorable. Possibly more honest. When everyone in the room is sitting in swimwear and steam, theatrical pretension has nowhere to hide.
Sam Gough, CEO 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 And Festival Details
Sauna Theatre will be part of Summerhall Arts’ 2026 Edinburgh Festival Fringe programme throughout August.
Tickets began going on sale at 12 noon on Friday, 1 May through festival.summerhallarts.co.uk, with further availability from Wednesday, 6 May via edfringe.com.
For a festival famous for pushing boundaries, Sauna Theatre may be one of the few venues where the boundary is not just between performer and audience, but between art and physiology. You arrive for a show. You leave with your senses rinsed, your shoulders lowered and the nagging suspicion that most theatres have been far too cold for far too long.