Guide: Edinburgh Fringe's Best Immersive and Interactive Shows (2026)
- Immersive Rumours
- 10 hours ago
- 8 min read
With nearly 4,000 shows on offer across August, planning a visit to the Scottish capital is a daunting task. Here's our guide to some of the interactive and immersive shows at the Edinburgh Fringe in 2026 that we think are worth speed-walking across the city for.
Spreadsheets at the ready! The full line-up for 2026's Edinburgh Fringe is here. With nearly 4,000 shows on offer across hundreds of venues in the Scottish capital, the month-long arts festival is a daunting event to tackle, even for those who have been multiple times. To help out, we've put together a list of our top recommendations for interactive and immersive shows at this year's Edinburgh Fringe.
While this is by no means an exhaustive list, it's a solid jumping-off point for anyone looking to see what interactive and immersive work is being performed at the Fringe this summer. Expect more shows to be added as we get closer to August.
Deepfake by 404 Theater
Photo: Amanda Gostomski
Designed to be experienced by only one audience member at a time (aka catnip to immersive theatre fans), 404 Theater's DeepFake sees those who attend thrown into the deep end of a virtual call, in which they have to argue their case for whether or not their fictional employer should launch a new AI software in the coming days. Given the show's title, you can probably guess where things are heading...
DeepFake has already received critical praise, with our friends at No Proscenium describing it as 'required viewing' and featuring it as one of their Best Shows & Experiences of 2025. The show comes fresh off sold-out runs at the Denver and Philly Fringe Festivals, so don't hang around.
You are the Head of Public Relations at MirrorMinds.ai, a company preparing for the launch of their newest product that allows anyone to create fake videos that look perfectly real. As the sole audience member and active participant in this immersive theatrical experience, you will video chat with co-workers, investigate the materials in your office and argue for your own perspective on the appropriate use of AI. It's up to you to make this launch a success... or not. Part puzzle room, part quiet horror story.
📍 Top Belly at Underbelly, Cowgate (Venue 61)
💰 From £13.00
🕒 6th - 30th August 2026, 14:00-16:40, 15 minutes
🎟️ Book via edfringe.com
ARCADE by DARKFIELD
Photo: Mihaela Bodlovic
While DARKFIELD are best known for creating linear immersive audiences such as FLIGHT, COMA and SÉANCE, which all use binaural sound and complete darkness to transport guests into unsettling alternate realities, its latest production, ARCADE, takes a markedly more interactive approach with its choose-your-own-adventure format.
Audience members stand in front of individual arcade machines in total darkness and assume control of Milk, an amnesic avatar dropped into the middle of an ongoing war between the North Block and South Block. Through a series of simple 'Yes' or 'No' responses, participants explore ARCADE's branching narrative, creating a highly personal experience in which no two journeys are the same. With Milk trying to navigate a war-torn world where violence is commonplace, there's also some surprisingly dark subject matter to explore for those who can stay alive long enough...
Using the nostalgic aesthetic of 1980s video games, ARCADE invites participants to guide an avatar through a series of branching paths. Choices are offered, sides can be taken, and multiple outcomes are possible: You can search out a more peaceful route or join a cult promising a better version of reality. Where will your decisions lead you? This is an interactive experience in complete darkness inside a shipping container, using binaural sound and sensory effects. ARCADE explores existential questions about free will and consciousness in a world where some may win, and some may lose...
📍 Potterrow Plaza at Pleasance Dome (Venue 23)
💰 From £15.00
🕒 5th - 31st August 2026, 12:00-20:45, 30 minutes
🎟️ Book via edfringe.com
Hamlet (an experience) by Brite Theater
Photo: Brite Theater
In Hamlet (an experience), Emily Carding - one of the best actors working in immersive theatre today - takes on the titular role in this abridged version of Shakespeare's masterpiece. As part of the show, Carding's Hamlet recruits numerous audience members to play their friends and family, who jump into scenes as and when the script dictates.
While following stage directions to collapse on the floor and remain dead after being stabbed or poisoned is, of course, great fun for those selected to join the cast, it's the opportunity to witness Carding's tour de force performance up close that makes Hamlet (an experience) such a compelling hour of theatre.
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. From multi-award-winning Brite Theater, creators of Richard III (a one-person show) and Deliverance. Starring Emily Carding, directed by Kolbrún Björt Sigfúsdóttir.
📍 George Mackay Brown Library at Scottish Storytelling Centre (Venue 30)
💰 From £14.00
🕒 7th - 17th August 2026, 16:30, 1 hour
🎟️ Book via edfringe.com
Jill's Tupperware Party by Asparagus Mousse
Photo: Rah Petherbridge
Jill's Tupperware Party, directed by David Alwyn and starring Coral Bevan and Ricky Hunt, is the latest interactive production from Asparagus Mousse - the producers of Wayne Wayneson's Rock Hard and Fisherman Jon: What’s on the End of My Rod? A Clown Odyssey.
Described as blending 'retro suburban camp with B-movie terror', it's an interaction-heavy show with audiences standing and moving around the venue as a cheery demo quickly descends into a full-blown microwave-worshipping cult.
You're invited to Jill's Tupperware Party. A perfect world where plastic lids click, smiles almost never falter and microwaves hum with divine purpose. Jill's Tupperware Party is an auspicious afternoon where sales records, hearts and bones could all be broken. This interactive comedy-horror blends retro suburban camp with B-movie terror all sealed in a pastel fantasy. Come join the party. What's the worst that could happen? You're in the company of friends...
📍 Belly Laugh at Underbelly, Cowgate (Venue 61)
💰 From £12.50
🕒 5th - 30th August 2026, 14:35, 1 hour
🎟️ Book via edfringe.com
The Van Gogh Shogh by Donna Oblongata
Photo: Daniel Callahan
The Van Gogh Shogh, an interactive solo show featuring award-winning Philadelphia-based performer Donna Oblongata and directed by Francesca Montanile Lyons, sees the infamous painter (complete with bandaged ear, fur-lined cap and green overcoat à la Van Gogh's 'Self-Portrait with Bandaged Ear') recast as a gig-economy delivery rider who happens upon a modern-day immersive exhibition dedicated to their own work.
While four audience members are given the chance to paint their own version of Starry Night under Van Gogh's tutelage live on stage as part of a chaotic sip and paint, there's plenty more impactful interactions packed into this hour-long show for the rest of the audience to engage with, alongside some striking commentary on the value placed on both art and artists.
It’s a sip and paint. It’s Sotheby’s. It’s karaoke night. Strap in, because whatever it is, Van Gogh is back and he has a side hustle. This is the real Van Gogh Immersive Experience. Emphasis on immersive. Donna Oblongata (Leeway Transformation Award, Jilline Ringle Solo Performance Award) is 'brimming with compassion and monstrously funny' (PlayOnMKE). She has sold out theatres in NYC and LA and performed internationally in Slava’s Snowshow.
📍 Front Room at Assembly Rooms (Venue 20)
💰 From £14.00
🕒 6th - 30th August 2026, 18:25, 1 hour
🎟️ Book via edfringe.com
Handle with Care by Ontroerend Goed
Photo: Ans Brys
Belgian theatre collective Ontroerend Goed are known around the world for their boundary-breaking approach to making interactive work. While previous shows have seen the audience tied up, picked on and betrayed, all in the name of theatre, the group's approach has softened in recent years. For this year's Fringe, Ontroerend Goed are presenting Handle With Care - a show that foregoes technicians and performers entirely, and instead has the audience play all of the roles.
In the centre of the stage sits a box, inside of which is a series of instructions, objects and prompts. It's up to the audience to start the show, work through the boxes' contents, and bring the work into being. There's no wrong way to approach it; every show is unique, and how things will unfold remains a mystery until someone plucks up the courage to open the box.
A box is mailed to the theatre. The instructions are clear: invite a group of people, on a specific night, at a specific time. Place the box at the centre of the stage. Wait until an audience member opens the box. The show has started. Handle with Care is a theatre performance in a box. No actors, no technicians. Just a box. And you. This time, Ontroerend Goed gives you complete control. For an hour, you'll experience something one-off and unrepeatable. Here. Now. Together. No one is watching. Can you create something meaningful?
📍 Studio at ZOO Southside (Venue 82)
💰 From £18.00
🕒 24th - 30th August 2026, 13:30, 1 hour 15 minutes
🎟️ Book via edfringe.com
FLIGHT by DARKFIELD
Photo: Mihaela Bodlovic
Staged inside one of DARKFIELD's signature shipping containers, FLIGHT places guests aboard a cross-section of an Airbus A320 cabin for a half-hour experience in total darkness. The experience unfolds across two parallel realities simultaneously: one in which the aircraft lands safely, and another in which it does not. It's an intense experience that's unlike anything else at the Fringe, and at times, utterly terrifying.
FLIGHT is an immersive audio experience in complete darkness, inside a shipping container with an interior exactly 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. FLIGHT explores the unsettling idea that more than one version of the present may exist simultaneously: there are many worlds in which this plane lands safely.
📍 Assembly George Square (Venue 8)
💰 From £13.50
🕒 5th - 31st August 2026, 12:00-20:30, 30 minutes
🎟️ Book via edfringe.com
COMA by DARKFIELD
Photo: Mihaela Bodlovic
Rounding off DARKFIELD's 2026 Fringe offerings is COMA, which first premiered at the festival in 2019. COMA invites participants into a darkened immersive audio experience that explores the boundaries between consciousness and unconsciousness. Through binaural sound and total darkness, guests take on the role of test subjects in a clinical trial and slip into a collective dream as they lie in a bunk bed and swallow a placebo pill.
COMA is an immersive audio experience in complete darkness. You’re lying on a bunk bed inside a shipping container. Headphones on, lights out. 360-degree sound invites you to take part in a collective experiment: slip into a shared dream on the edge of consciousness. The most surrender-driven of the DARKFIELD shows, and the one that asks you to let go completely. Please remember when you leave to take your body with you.
📍 Assembly George Square (Venue 8)
💰 From £15.00
🕒 5th - 31st August 2026, 12:15-20:45, 30 minutes
🎟️ Book via edfringe.com
My Date with Pierce Brosnan by Alistair Aitcheson
Photo: Jon Street
Alistair Aitcheson's solo clown show, My Date with Pierce Brosnan, sees the open-hearted Mademoiselle Cafetière looking for love opposite a dummy of the one-time James Bond. As an interactive piece, My Date.. relies heavily on audience input to help build everything from the date's location and Cafetière's dating profile, to what Brosnan says during their one-on-one encounter via text-to-speech.
As you'd expect, giving an audience free rein to steer the show results in countless left-field suggestions being incorporated into the show, but Aitcheson's commitment to the bit means this hour-long show is packed full of laughs regardless of what comes out of Brosnan's mouth.
It's anarchic, it's saucy, and it's totally unpredictable. It's a clown romance controlled by you! 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 with your phone and type what you want Pierce Brosnan 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!
📍 Nineties at Laughing Horse @ City Cafe (Venue 85)
💰 Pay What You Can
🕒 16th - 30th August 2026, 23:10, 1 hour
🎟️ Details via edfringe.com
