Channel by Dutch Kills Theater Company and Wet Hands returns to Edinburgh Fringe
- Immersive Rumours
- 1 day ago
- 3 min read
A live electronic music performance encourages audiences to reflect on the overwhelming noise of social media through mindful, meditative listening.
Photo: Alley Scott
Inspired by the sonic meditations of American composer Pauline Oliveros, Channel has been created by Jack McGuire as an introduction to communal and attentive listening. Wet Hands (Jack McGuire) provides a welcoming space, creating a live soundscape through an experimental approach to layering sound. Audience members are invited to take part in this collective listening experience and encouraged to contribute to and become a part of the ambient soundscape.
Channel comprises a physical and audio environment designed to be a peaceful escape, while also fostering a sense of connection and community. Jack McGuire has previously collaborated with Dutch Kills Theater Company at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe on Solitary (2019), Temping (2022 - 2024) and most recently Double Take (2025 – present) produced alongside Broken Box Mime Theater.
Channel premiered at Assembly Roxy last year at the Edinburgh Fringe and returns as an even more intimate experience for groups of ten in the shipping container space that hosted Dutch Kills Theater’s acclaimed installation of Temping between 2022 and 2024.
Channel is part of Dutch Kills Theater Company’s wider programme of performance at the Fringe this year, including Peregrinations (Assembly Roxy), a wordless work of masked physical theatre and puppetry exploring the immigrant crisis in America, Double Take (Underbelly), a non-verbal, physical-theatre collaboration with Broken Box Mime Theater looking at the hidden layers beneath everyday moments, and Noted (Assembly Roxy), a non-verbal physical comedy created with The Back Pack where live hand drawn illustrations bring to life the whimsical and absurd nature of human connection.
Creator Jack McGuire said:
After attending the Fringe for a few years as a performer and tech, I realised that there is a need for a space to rest. As beautiful as this festival is, and the amount of performance that you can see, it can become quite overwhelming to be consuming so much. When I set out to make Channel, I wanted to make a show that offers a place to slow down from the hectic pace of Fringe. By offering the audience a place to practice deep listening (or their own meditation practice, or just rest) the show becomes a place to have a little reset. We also included some audience participation, in the form of contributing sounds to be mixed into the music, as a way to keep the space active and playful. Each day the music and lights are improvised with the audience energy and participation as the guide. The show is truly created through the act of collective listening. I am excited to bring this work back, and to be in our own space that we can develop into a place dedicated to listening and to rest. Pauline Oliveros’ practice of Deep Listening has been an influence on my performance for a long time, and I am very grateful for the opportunity to continue to share this performance practice.”
Jack McGuire is an American sound designer, multi-instrumentalist, and songwriter who graduated from Juilliard School of Music in 2018. His work focuses on performance, allowing him to take an improvisational and exploratory approach to creating. Jack is an avid collaborator, working on many different interdisciplinary projects, and which has led him to work with Deaf/Non-hearing artists, puppeteers, and mimes.
Dutch Kills Theater Company is based in New York, developing and producing new work by emerging artists. Founded in 2011, they brought The Sister and Adventure Quest to the Edinburgh Fringe in 2016. This was followed by the critically acclaimed The Providence of Neighboring Bodies by Jean Ann Douglass in 2018, and Solitary—a powerful look at solitary confinement in the U.S.—by Duane Cooper and Blake Haberman in 2019. In 2021, they staged the immersive UK premiere of KlaxAlterian Sequester on demand, and in 2022 presented Intelligence at Assembly Roxy alongside the critically-acclaimed Temping that ran from 2022 – 2024.
In 2025 they returned to Edinburgh Fringe with the world premiere of Channel and the UK premiere of Whisper Walk. Dutch Kills has also produced critically acclaimed pieces in New York City and at the Adelaide Fringe.
Channel runs at The Cubicle at Buccleuch Place at Assembly George Square (Venue 8) from 5th to 30th August 2026 at 18:00 and 20:30 (Mon-Thurs) and 16:00 and 18:30 (Fri-Sun). For more information and to book tickets, visit edfringe.com