mssv

The archetypical Edinburgh Fringe show makes the most of its constraints: simple, sparse sets in front of an immobile audience. Most artists lose money at the fringe, so why go further into the red with “immersive” performances that require expensive and elaborate sets, or trade ticket sales for participation? Yet some brave souls persist.

So here is my list of shows I’m keeping an eye on. There’s no strong guiding principle – don’t ask me why this or that show is or isn’t included, I will refuse to explain myself.

Except where noted, I haven’t seen any of these, so they might be terrible. Prices are approximate. Most are around one hour. Descriptions lightly edited from official show info.

• My Date with Pierce Brosnan (Alistair Aitcheson, free): Mademoiselle Cafetière is a lonely clown who meets the man of her dreams: Hollywood actor Pierce Brosnan. There’s just one catch. Pierce Brosnan is a talking dummy piloted by you, the audience. Scan a QR code and type what you want Pierce to say. If you type it, he will say it – he has no filter! Play matchmaker or wreak havoc in the most bizarre love story ever to grace the stage! – I know Alistair, he’s an excellent game designer and very nice guy.
• Hamlet (an experience) (Brite Theater, £14): Hamlet has the questions. Do you have the answers? A prince of Denmark needs your help. Take on the roles, journey through the play and resolve the great questions of life together, immersed in the story as never before – Starring Emily Carding, whom I’ve seen in the impressive Key of Dreams.
• Mark Vigeant: OUT THERE (Mark Vigeant, £14): Meet Larry: a burnt-out engineer on a mission to gain fame by livestreaming a survival adventure from the Alaskan wilderness … blending live video, immersive tech and fearless clowning.
• DeepFake (404 Theater, £12, 15 min): You’re head of PR preparing for the launch of a new product that lets anyone make fake videos that look perfectly real. As sole audience member you’ll video chat with co-workers, investigate the materials in your office and argue for your own perspective on the appropriate use of AI.
• The Secret Society (The Chandeliers, £12.50): An immersive comedy experience. Step into the world of a very serious, very secret, very important secret society.
• Cult (Nevermore Theatre, £5+): A fully immersive experience where the audience are initiated into their own unique cult. Incorporating real world recruitment tactics … interactive, ridiculous and dark.
• Mason King – The Mind Spy (Elite Entertainment, £13.50): An immersive, theatrical, magic and mind-reading experience inspired by real Cold War psychic experiments. Could you be a psychic spy? Expect impossible predictions, thought transmission and unexpected connections as the audience becomes part of the test.
• The Speakeasy Experience (Pickering’s Gin, £20): Surrounded by animal skulls and illicit research, you are invited into the medical underground’s inner circle. Sign the ledger and swear a binding oath of secrecy before being administered two potent, gin-based trials.
• 0% Faithful: Can You Solve The Traitors Murders? (Tommy Jollyboat, free): You are the detective in this high-tech immersive murder mystery! Use your phone to guide the investigation, and choose which suspects and clues to follow up.
• Dystopia 26: The Rock Opera (Beldon Haigh, £17.50, 2 hours): An immersive political satire and electrifying rock spectacle. You’re not just an audience – you’re a Dystopian, summoned to join a state “Dystopiation” event where you will vote.
• Channel (Wet Hands, £13): Step inside a transformed shipping container and enter a fully immersive, interactive electronic soundbath designed for deep rest and radical listening.
• Trainspotting Live (£22, 80 min): The audience are literally part of the action, including the notorious ‘worst toilet in Scotland’ scene.
• Werewolf (Binge Culture, £17): A gripping blend of thriller and comedy that pulls you into an immersive world of suspicion, survival and uneasy laughter.
• Murder at The Speakeasy (Not Cricket Productions, £16, 2 hours): Meet and mingle with the staff and performers and when the killer strikes, follow the clues and interrogate the suspects to work out whodunnit. A lively and immersive evening of suspense and sleuthing with 1950s dress encouraged.
• Extra Lives: The Interactive Video Game Concert (£13): Vote to decide what happens next while a live band performs the soundtrack! Inspired by classic video games … blends live music, storytelling and interactive gameplay into an epic journey.
• I Was Never Here (Leo Lion, £8): A highly interactive, gonzo spy thriller featuring an overzealous secret agent searching for activation phrases which will help him regain sections of his memory. Play along, decode cyphers, answer phones.
• Robot Vacuum Fight Club (International Ghost Society, £15): Form a team, select a knockoff Roomba, customise it, then clean house in a series of knockout competitions that test balance, agility and suction power … an anarchic, fully-interactive game show put together on an extremely tight budget.
• Off With Your Head! (Bowtie Productions / RGB Monster, free): Enter a 12th-century throne room, where you decide the fates of two guest performers trying to rule your kingdom. Play peasants, warlords, dragons or just sit back and cheer for their demise! An interactive comedy game show that merges video games and TTRPG.
• Nude Parade (WIP) (Creepy Boys, £15): Roll up your sleeves, and go under the knife as we enter into an anaesthetic world turned upside down. Like a live theatre version of the game of Operation – but make it trans … combining live-feed video, interactive surgery and trash puppets.
• John Robertson’s The Dark Room (£13.50): Fuses improv, gaming and stand-up into the Fringe’s most deranged gameshow! – I’ve seen this, it’s very fun!
• COMA (Darkfield, £15, 30 min): An immersive audio experience in complete darkness … lying on a bunk bed inside a shipping container. The most surrender-driven of the DARKFIELD shows, and the one that asks you to let go completely.
• FLIGHT (Darkfield, £15, 30 min): An immersive audio experience inside a shipping container … resembling a full-scale plane cabin. Exploring the Many-Worlds Interpretation of quantum mechanics, the experience unfolds across two parallel realities and two possible outcomes to the same journey.
• ARCADE (Darkfield, £15, 30 min): As above, using the nostalgic aesthetic of 1980s video games … invites participants to guide an avatar through a series of branching paths. – I’ve interviewed Darkfield for my book.