Santa has been propping up the bar in his favourite watering hole and is lacking in Christmas spirit. Can we save the holiday season and get him back on his sleigh, or has he hung up his boots for good? Our review of Humbug, the immersive Christmas dive bar. Photo: Grant Walker Temperatures are dropping, and it's getting dark at what feels like 3pm again, so that can only mean one thing: Christmas is fast approaching. With it comes the return of Humbug, the adults-only immersive Christmas dive bar experience, which previously took over Brick Lane's Truman Brewery and this year returns to its spiritual home of Waterloo, where it first debuted in 2023. The experience, which this time around is at The Vaults just off Leake Street, combines live music, sing-alongs and cabaret with a cast of memorable characters to create a raucous and booze-fuelled evening out that's basically the adult equivalent of going to a Christmas grotto, but with cocktails, swearing and sacks full of innuendo. This edition of Humbug is front-loaded with several immersive scenes for groups of up to 20 at a time. Starting in the Humbug Mail Room, guests are introduced to bumbling mailman Howard (Perry Meadowcroft/Craig Hamilton), who's getting increasingly worried after losing all of the letters due to be delivered to Santa after a few too many after-work cocktails. He's quick to swear in the group as honorary, seasonal Humbug Mail workers and soon tasks them with searching through all the sorting office's pigeonholes for any stray letters bound for the North Pole. Photo: Grant Walker With the search yielding little success, Howard directs guests out of the Mail Room through the 'Die Hard tunnel'. There's no explanation for its existence, and of course, nobody questions it, because if you're given the chance to act like John McClane, you say 'Yippee-ki-yay' and start crawling. On the other side, guests come face to face with Daphne (Savannah Beckford/Heather Gourdie), a disgruntled waitress who has long since mentally clocked out of her job, inside the bar's office, which is doubling as Santa's dressing room for his open-ended residency at Humbug. Daphne expresses some concern for Santa's well-being, sharing that he should have already been on his way back to the North Pole, and if he doesn't leave Humbug soon, Christmas might end up being cancelled. While Daphne has long dreamt of being a singer on Humbug's main stage, an embarrassing moment in her past ended with a pile of vomit on the stage, so she's convinced there's a Christmas curse hanging over her and has vowed to no longer perform. Photo: Grant Walker Johnny (Thomas Fabian Parrish/Joey Bradick), who enters the room at the end of Daphne's speech, has no such issue performing on stage. As the lead singer of Humbug's house band, he's slightly worried to hear that Santa hasn't arrived ahead of his final performance yet, but encourages us to holler and cheer later on when Santa takes the stage. With a strum of his guitar, the doors of a nondescript wardrobe swing open, and guests are ushered past rails of coats and jackets into an elaborately decorated hallway covered floor to ceiling in wrapping paper and bows. While the Mail Room and Bar Office are both well decorated and detailed, the wrapping paper tunnel serves as guests' first introduction to the maximalist design on display throughout the venue. Every inch of Humbug's main space is covered in Christmas memorabilia, including VHS tapes, board games, trinkets and signs for the North Pole. References to classic Christmas films like Home Alone, The Grinch, Die Hard (which is 100% a Christmas film), and The Santa Clause are scattered throughout the space by the dozen, and basically every corner of the venue is crying out to be Instagrammed. If you so wished, you could fill an entire evening just admiring the venue's lovingly curated set dressing. Photo: Grant Walker The centrepiece of Humbug's main space – a gold streamer-lined main stage – sits at the far end of the venue and plays host to Johnny Whiskey and the Barflys throughout the evening, alongside duets from Howard and Daphne and solo performances from Santa, who is meant to be performing for the final time before heading back to the North Pole. Throughout the 2-hour-long experience, several scenes tie into the story set up in the show's immersive rooms, including Howard's ongoing hunt for Santa's letters and Daphne's repeated refusal to perform on her own, but the main focus once the on-stage performances begin is Santa (Curtis Medley/Ryan Freebury) and their refusal to get into the Christmas spirit. Those who have attended Humbug before will immediately notice that Santa has been reworked quite heavily for this 2025 run. Previous versions of the show portrayed Santa as a pint-loving East London geezer, too drunk to drive his sleigh and resigned to staying in Humbug purely because he couldn't stay away from the bar long enough to sober up. In this year's version of the show, he's a charismatic Mancunian who's seemingly got his life together but just can't face returning to the North Pole and delivering presents yet again. Photo: Grant Walker Alongside several modern Christmas classics from the likes of Ariana Grande and Mariah Carey performed throughout Humbug, there are also some deeper festive cuts on Humbug's setlist. Clarence Carter's 'Back Door Santa' turns more than a few heads once people clock the lyrics, and a brief rendition of 'All I Want For Christmas Is Booty', a song from John Goodman's opening monologue in a 2013 episode of Saturday Night Live, shows that no festive song is too obscure to include, as long as it's catchy. In the second half of Humbug, an extended scene on stage featuring Santa wearing a bucket hat and red tracksuit, along with a gold snowflake chain, draws some of the evening's loudest cheers. DJ Pied Piper's 'Do You Really Like It?' and M-Beat's 'Incredible' both blast from the speakers while Daphne, who's sporting a green Team Australia cap, parodies the viral Olympian breakdancer with some wonderfully half-hearted dance moves. While the live band (featuring Tomas Wolstenholme as Ginger Snap on bass and Josh Haberfield/Evie Joy Wright as Rudy on drums, alongside Johnny) put on a great show, on the night we attended, the room's acoustics made a lot of their hard work tough to hear clearly. The sound bounced off the venue's arched brick walls in every direction, creating a muddled mix that made distinguishing the vocals from the instruments nigh on impossible. When The Barflys aren't performing live, and pre-recorded tracks are played, there was no such issue, which sadly results in the live performances - both musical numbers and dialogue scenes - often failing to hold the audience's attention. The accumulation of numerous group conversations also drowned out a good amount of what was happening on stage for all but those in the premium cabaret seats directly in front of the stage. Photo: Grant Walker Outside of the show's cast occasionally moving through the audience and a brief conga led by Howard and Daphne around the venue, the majority of Humbug's runtime is devoid of any audience interaction, besides a handful of the letters written to Santa earlier in the evening by guests being read out on stage. On top of this, one of the standout moments from earlier editions of Humbug – the group visits to Santa’s makeshift grotto hidden in the venue’s backrooms – no longer appears in the production, further reducing the opportunities for guests to interact with the show's cast. While some performance elements have been scaled back for 2025, the food and drinks on offer at Humbug remain consistently strong and suitably festive. Cocktails include the bright green Grinch 3.0, a Festpresso Martini, and the Bah F*ckin' Humbug, which is made up of at least three different spirits and comes with a sparkler and candy cane on top. Food, which comes courtesy of Bang Bang Burger, includes a Chicken Humburger that's stuffed with Brussels sprout slaw and cranberry sauce on top of a fried chicken breast, alongside slightly less indulgent, but still great, beef and vegan options. Those feeling up to the challenge can also take on a side order of 20 pigs in blankets, with more traditional sides and desserts like stuffing balls and waffles also on offer. Photo: Grant Walker As a booze-fuelled evening of festive cheer and sing-alongs, Humbug is an ideal choice for those in search of a Christmas night out with friends or colleagues that's grown-up and leans into the adult humour. Anyone going into Humbug hoping for an experience that's as much an immersive show as it is a Christmas knees-up may leave disappointed, but you'd have to have a heart two sizes too small to stumble out of Humbug and not find yourself more in the Christmas spirit than when you went in. ★★★ Humbug runs at The Vaults near Waterloo Station until 31st December 2025. For more information and to book, visit feverup.com. Tickets start from £22.00.

Peaky Blinders Underworld's impressive recreation of Small Heath is let down by missions that fail to make the most of its world and cast. Photo: Peaky Blinders Underworld Peaky Blinders Underworld, which is located a stone's throw from London Bridge station, is an immersive experience inspired by the hugely popular BBC series. Made up of two halves: a fully operational recreation of the Garrison Tavern (which is free to visit) and an hour-long immersive experience set in and amongst Small Heath (which requires pre-booking), Peaky Blinders Underworld invites guests to dust off their favourite flat cap and help bolster the Shelby family's position as Birmingham's most powerful gang through a series of missions and character interactions. While it's not the first immersive experience based on the series to have opened in London (Immersive Everywhere's much-loved Peaky Blinders: The Rise ran in Camden Market across 2022 and 2023), Underworld has the backing of the show's creator, Steven Knight, and bills itself as the 'official Peaky Blinders experience'. Photo: Peaky Blinders Underworld Upon arrival, guests find themselves inside a recreation of the Garrison Tavern. Alongside live music and a well-stocked bar (which includes a lager brewed specifically for the venue), the pub is home to several members of the Peaky Blinders who aren't shy about making their presence known and ensuring the pub's patrons aren't members of any rival gangs. Moving from table to table, these roaming characters engage guests in conversation, provide some context on what to expect once they’re inside Underworld’s main free-roaming experience, and, as you’d expect, throw half a dozen swear words into every interaction for good measure. Across both parts of Peaky Blinders Underworld, the cast play original characters, with the TV series' main characters - including Tommy, Polly and Arthur - all said to be busy elsewhere. While the Garrison Tavern is an impressively sized space (and likely now one of the biggest pubs in the immediate area), the true scale of the venue doesn't reveal itself until guests step through a run-of-the-mill curtain in the back corner of the pub and find themselves walking the cobbled streets of 1920s Birmingham as part of the venue's timed main experience. Once guests are beyond the curtain, they're free to spend their allocated 60 minutes as they wish. With several bars, a funfair full of games and winnable prizes, a bookies and a temporary tattoo parlour, there's plenty of choice when it comes to how to spend your time. The experience's centrepieces, however, are its two main missions, which guests are pulled into almost immediately by one of the Peaky Blinders crew. Photo: Peaky Blinders Underworld The primary task is to catch the rat who's been passing on information to London-based gangster Darby Sabini. To do so, guests need to explore the various businesses, alleyways and dens that make up the neighbourhood, locate five clues hiding in plain sight, and use them to uncover the rat's true identity. The secondary goal is to locate all of the peepholes scattered throughout Small Heath and gather intel on the number of barrels, crates and boxes being delivered by gangster Alfie Solomons, which can then be used to obtain a steep discount on the next shipment. Both missions are straightforward enough to complete within the allotted hour, leaving plenty of time to try everything else on offer. They're also among the experience's weakest elements, with the information gathered not leading to any meaningful narrative developments, and neither mission requires guests to interact with the show's cast to complete. It's a baffling creative decision considering this is an interactive experience with a cast full of capable performers, and it's only worsened by the fact that, besides a drinks token and a brief word of thanks at the end of the mission, discovering who the rat is or securing a discount on Solomons' next delivery have zero noticeable impact on the world or those within it. As a result, Peaky Blinders Underworld is at its best when guests step away from its main objectives and start interacting with the world around them directly... Photo: Peaky Blinders Underworld Outside of the two main missions, there's a good number of side activities to keep guests entertained, most of which are located within the Small Heath Fairground. From hook-a-duck and a coconut shy through to ring toss and a shooting gallery, guests could devote a good chunk of their time to completing all the challenges on offer here and not run out of things to do. Each game also has era-appropriate prizes to be won, including harmonicas, whoopee cushions and wooden toys, which add another layer of reward for those who succeed at each game. Much like in the Garrison Tavern, members of the Peaky Blinders roam the space, providing one-on-one interactions with guests and pointing them in the right direction if they’re struggling with the missions. Alongside them are the various funfair workers, bookies and shopkeepers who flesh out the world further. These encounters reward guests who actively seek them out, with the strongest moments coming from the random comments exchanged once we'd completed the two main missions. Photo: Peaky Blinders Underworld During our visit, every interaction we had with the show’s cast was hugely enjoyable and in keeping with the feel of the original series. Across the board, the entire cast seemed comfortable improvising and bouncing off whatever was thrown their way - whether that was helping name a toy duck we won in the funfair or debating the ethics of bare-knuckle boxing. From the cobblestone floor and billowing smoke vents, through the props and signage, the experience’s set is a wonderfully detailed recreation of the original series setting and feels reminiscent of pre-COVID Secret Cinema productions. There are enough hidden corners and alleyways to give guests a sense of discovery as they get their bearings and plenty of small Easter eggs for die-hard fans of the show to pick up on and appreciate. Photo: Peaky Blinders Underworld While Peaky Blinders Underworld succeeds when it comes to its performances, set design and atmosphere, the overall experience is let down by its two central missions, which offer very little in the way of narrative and can be completed without any meaningful interactions with the cast. Hopefully, with time, these issues can be worked out, and Underworld can provide a deeper experience for guests to get tangled up in. Either way, long-time fans of the show will likely find plenty to enjoy in this impressive recreation of its world, even if its lack of narrative depth currently prevents its strongest elements from coming together into one cohesive experience. ★★★½ [Tickets gifted in exchange for an honest review] Peaky Blinders Underworld runs at 8 Bermondsey Street near London Bridge until 30th December 2026. Tickets are priced from £21.95 per person. For more information and to book tickets, visit peakyblinders.london

The WhatsApp-based social deduction experience will launch in early September across the UK and Ireland. Image: CityDays Tickets are now on sale for The Traitors: Anywhere, an officially licensed social deduction game inspired by the BAFTA and Emmy-winning global hit TV phenomenon The Traitors. The game brings the tension, strategy and psychological intrigue of The Traitors directly into players' everyday lives, played entirely through WhatsApp, with no additional apps or downloads required. From 10am on 18th August, those on the waitlist can secure bookings 48 hours before the general public, a 3-for-2 offer on game passes and gain exclusive early access to play the game one week ahead of the official public launch. Following this limited window, passes will officially open to the general public starting on 20th August. Designed for groups of friends, families or colleagues, The Traitors: Anywhere transforms a private group chat into a high-stakes world of suspicion, scheming and surprise. Available for up to 30 players, with larger groups able to split into parallel games, each experience unfolds over approximately one week of orchestrated action. The Traitors: Anywhere will launch initially to UK & Ireland players in 2026. Photo: CityDays Across the week, players navigate a compelling cycle of missions, Round Table discussions, banishments and covert traitor activity. Cooperation and deception go hand in hand as participants complete challenges, form alliances and attempt to uncover hidden traitors, or successfully conceal their own identity. Private messages with the host add an additional layer of strategy, while the group chat becomes the central stage for accusations, persuasion and dramatic reveals. Perfect for social gatherings, family groups and competitive workplace teams, The Traitors: Anywhere allows larger organisations to take part across multiple games. The experience is priced from £8.99 per player, with discounts available for pass bundles. The Traitors: Anywhere will launch in the UK and Ireland this September. Participants must be aged 16 or over. For more information, visit thetraitorsanywhere.com.

The free immersive experience at Outernet London will combine large-scale visuals with fan-led celebrations on 16th August. A new interactive installation celebrating Madonna’s birthday will arrive in central London on Sunday, 16th August. Titled C’MON MEET ME ON THE DANCEFLOOR, the experience brings together music, large-scale visual storytelling and fan participation across the immersive screens of Outernet London. Created and directed by London-based Lookport Studio in collaboration with Outernet London, the installation has been designed specifically for the venue’s vast 360-degree digital environment, bringing Madonna’s visual world to an entirely new scale. The installation will celebrate Madonna’s extraordinary creative legacy while also reflecting the visual language of her latest creative chapter, bringing music and imagery together across one of London’s most distinctive digital spaces. At the heart of the installation is an interactive fan experience inviting visitors to contribute to the work themselves. Fans will be able to leave a personal message, with selected photographs and messages appearing across Outernet’s monumental screens alongside contributions from other fans. Photo: Outernet Alex Wolf, Founder and Creative Director at Lookport Studio comments: Madonna helped write the language of modern pop culture through decades of relentless work, constant reinvention and a refusal to stand still. We wanted to honour that drive and give the audience a genuine way to express their own connection to her work - through personal stories, emotions and messages. C’MON MEET ME ON THE DANCEFLOOR is conceived as a public celebration rather than a retrospective - bringing together Madonna’s latest visual language with a more personal layer shaped by the people who come to see it. Philip O’Ferrall, CEO at Outernet, adds: Great cultural moments are about bringing people together, and that is exactly what we want Outernet to do. Madonna has inspired audiences and artists for generations, so it is a complete privilege to be able to celebrate her and her connection with fans in such a creative and interactive way. Photo: Outernet The Madonna birthday installation will be free and open to the public at Outernet London, Tottenham Court Road, on Sunday, 16 August 2026. The experience will screen at selected times throughout the day. Visitors are encouraged to check the Outernet London website for the latest screening schedule before travelling.

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 exit strategy’s How to Win a Gameshow Photo: exit strategy How to Win a Gameshow is an interactive theatre piece that follows Graham, who has spent an indeterminate amount of time trapped as a contestant inside a bizarre game show. The show is an exploration of our own capacities for complicity under observation; of our impulses as a group and as individuals; and of our presumed anonymity in theatrical, social, and technological space. Blending the entertainment inherent in gameshow with improvisation and audience interaction, the show turns spectators into active participants as it explores surveillance, conformity, complicity, and challenges the expectation that audience members can ever be passive observers in theatrical space. Graham has been the star contestant of a popular gameshow for either 4 or 327 days. Led by a series of violently charming hosts, Graham and the audience compete in a game neither party understands. The tasks are invasive, the stakes mysteriously high, and the audience increasingly implicated. Part performance art, part improv show, part ethics inquiry, How to Win a Gameshow blurs the line between performer and audience - rendering everyone subject to scrutiny under the watchful eye of an ever-present, controlling, overarching force. 📍 theSpace @ Niddry St (Venue 9)/theSpace (Venue 45) 💰 From £12.00 🕒 7th - 22nd August 2026, 20:35/21:10, 50 minutes 🎟️ 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 - an artist-led theatre company co-founded by performers and makers Coral Bevan, David Alwyn and Ricky Hunt. They are all from an interactive live events background, having worked extensively for the likes of Secret Cinema, The Lost Estate, etc. 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 @ St Andrew Square (Venue 172) 💰 From £14.00 🕒 6th - 30th August 2026, 18:25, 1 hour 🎟️ Book via edfringe.com Handle with Care by Ontroerend Goed Photo: Joëlle Desmet 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 BATSU! Presents: GANBA!! Image: BATSU! Presents GANBA!! Cult hit BATSU! has been a Fringe favourite for several years now. A high-energy comedy game show in which comedians compete to avoid receiving creative and often painful punishments, it's the kind of late-night Fringe show that draws in a crowd who are game for anything, and has enjoyed huge success with permanent residencies in New York and Chicago and a sold-out run at the festival in 2025. For 2026, the creative team behind BATSU! will debut GANBA!!, an energetic interactive ninja training show for families. Through sword training, physical comedy, martial arts, water fights and audience participation, young warriors will test their focus, agility, teamwork and courage through a series of hilarious challenges as they train to defeat the Batsu no Akuma (Spirit of Punishment). Enter the Dojo and train like a ninja in this high-energy, interactive comedy experience from the international hit BATSU! Your whole family can join the action, take on ridiculous challenges and awaken your warrior spirit. You'll test your focus, teamwork and ability to rise to the moment. But beware! The mischievous Spirit of Batsu is watching, ready to disrupt your training. To succeed, you'll need to work together and give it everything you've got. You have to go for it! You have to GANBA!! 📍 Friesian at Underbelly, Bristo Square (Venue 302) 💰 From £15.50 🕒 5th - 16th August 2026, 11:05, 1 hour 🎟️ Details via edfringe.com The Secret Society by The Chandeliers Image: The Chandeliers The Secret Society is an interactive comedy in which the audience takes on the role of a mysterious organisation's newest recruits. Adorned with ceremonial sashes and given secret instructions, guests are drawn into a world of peculiar traditions, competing factions and unanswered questions surrounding the disappearance of its elusive leader. Through audience participation, every audience member contributes to the unfolding story as the performers adapt to their input in real time. Broadway World UK described the show as a 'fun and fascinating mix of scripted and improvisational comedy', and it comes fresh off the back of dates at the Brighton Fringe. An immersive comedy experience. Step into the world of a very serious, very secret, very important secret society. As a member of the society, you are privy to astonishing secrets and command powers beyond all imagination. But as you enter the chambers for the weekly meeting, all is not as it seems. Mysteries unravel, rifts form, and the wrong choice could mean the end of the society itself. So you'd better make the right decision... no pressure! From the team behind multi-award-winning comedy CSI: Crime Scene Improvisation, a brand new comedy immersive experience like no other! 📍 Belly Laugh at Underbelly, Cowgate (Venue 61) 💰 From £12.50 🕒 8th - 16th August 2026, 21:05, 1 hour 🎟️ Details via edfringe.com Immersive Rumours will be at the Edinburgh Fringe 2026. Follow along via Instagram or BlueSky. See all of our Edinburgh Fringe coverage here.

Counterpilot's brilliant interactive social experiment will have you questioning whether there's still space for objectivity in a post-truth era. Photo: Kate O'Sullivan Truthmachine, created by Australian collective Counterpilot, is an interactive social experiment in which an audience member is invited to take part in a lie detector test while a group of their peers look on and examine their physiological response to probing, and at times intrusive, questioning Initially inspired by the first Trump presidency and the rise of fake news, Truthmachine looks to examine what we're willing to accept as fact and if such a thing can even exist in today's post-truth world. The experience begins with guests being seated in the round in front of a microphone and an illuminated console which registers yes/no answers and drenches each audience member in a green or red light once their answer to each question posed is revealed. An initial round of control questions delivered through headphones - covering everything from nut allergies and capitalism to masturbatory habits - proves to be an effective way of raising the collective tension, as each box briefly lights up before settling on who must answer into the microphone. The whole thing has a game show-like quality to it, albeit one where the only 'prize' is the chance to answer far more piercing questions while strapped into a polygraph. Photo: Danica Zuks With an audience member selected for the hot seat, the experiment's host (Emily Carr) dives right into a series of far more intimate questions as the other eleven audience members watch on, looking for even the slightest changes in body language, heart rate, breathing or skin conductivity. It's here, when the group becomes a jury and is asked to weigh up the answers of their fellow audience member against the supposedly objective data being gathered through the wires and sensors attached to them, that Truthmachine's central question becomes clearer. Will we trust our gut and intuition, or what the lie detector machine is telling us? Interspersed amongst the questioning is a highly-produced pre-recorded narrative that explores the history of the lie detector machine, and the campaign waged against the polygraph by Douglas Williams, who spent decades teaching people how to beat the exact kind of test audiences are undertaking in that very moment. The juxtaposition between Williams' critique of the technology and the audience's sudden reliance on it to ascertain if we're being fed truth or lies from across the table is particularly striking. The experience's final moments are the most theatrical, and recast the audience member plugged into the polygraph as the only person in the room holding all the cards. The rest of the room is confronted with the realisation that they may well have been lied to the entire time, even if what they were told was the truth. The question is no longer whether the machine can be trusted, but why we were willing to trust it in the first place. ★★★★½ Truthmachine runs at C alto (Venue 40) up to eight times a day between 15:00 and 21:50 until 30th August 2026. For more information and to book tickets, visit edfringe.com See all of our Edinburgh Fringe coverage here.

Twelve strangers enter a room. One volunteers to take a lie detector test. Photo: Kate O'Sullivan Award-winning Australian company Counterpilot brings its acclaimed interactive experience Truthmachine to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe this August, inviting audiences to take part in a working lie detector test and explore why the truth can be so difficult to face. Truthmachine places twelve audience members in an intimate interrogation room. Throughout the 30-minute experience, one volunteer is connected to a custom-built polygraph system and subjected to a live interrogation. As biometric sensors track heart rate, breathing and galvanic skin response, the rest of the audience becomes the jury, tasked with deciding whether the volunteer is telling the truth. Audience members can choose whether to volunteer for interrogation or remain witnesses to the experiment. Those who step forward are asked a series of questions exploring social shame, vulnerability, self-disclosure and the fears many of us have about what might happen if our private thoughts became public. Throughout the performance, a bespoke soundscape and lighting design respond in real time to physiological data, transforming the volunteer's bodily responses into a shared sensory experience. Developed by Brisbane-based arts company Counterpilot, Truthmachine combines live performance, interactive technology and documentary storytelling. The production emerged from the company's fascination with the cultural mythology surrounding lie detectors and the powerful hold they continue to exert on the public imagination. The concept was initially developed during the first Trump presidency, at a time when public debate was increasingly shaped by fake news, alternative facts and competing versions of reality. The original impetus came when Oxford Dictionaries named "post-truth" its Word oft he Year, reflecting a moment when public understanding of truth itself appeared to be shifting. As political and cultural conversations became consumed by questions of truth, Counterpilot became interested in a more unsettling possibility: what happens when certainty is unavailable, and some truths may never be fully known? "The lie detector as a pop cultural trope represents a naive hopefulness that truth is in there somewhere, perhaps extractable by technology", says Nathan Sibthorpe, Artistic Director. Alongside the live interrogation, Truthmachine explores the history of truth itself, the invention of the lie detector, and the long-running debate surrounding its reliability. The production also draws on the story of Douglas Williams, the real-life anti-polygraph campaigner who spent years teaching people how to beat lie detector tests and became one of the most outspoken critics of the technology. For Truthmachine, Counterpilot built its own lie detector. Developed with software designers, theatre-makers and technical specialists using original polygraph research, the custom-built system transforms biometric data into an unnerving chorus of light and sound. Between rounds of interrogation, audiences are introduced to the history of the polygraph, its controversies and critics, before ultimately being shown how lie detector tests can be beaten. Combining technical badassery with audience participation, Truthmachine invites audiences to step inside a lie detector test, compare notes with a room full of strangers, and leave wondering exactly what was real. Truthmachine runs at C alto (Venue 40) from 7th to 30th August 2026 at various times. For more information and to book tickets, visit edfringe.com

Daniel McVey's comedic interactive whodunit casts the audience as prime suspects at a village fete gone wrong. Photo: Miranda Spencer Pearson For local gossip Lydia - the protagonist of Dan McVey's A Foot is Not an Appropriate Prize for the Tombola - the discovery of a severed foot at the village fete is one of the most exciting things to ever happen in Greenwold. As a habitual nosy neighbour, she takes it upon herself to lead the investigation and, as is her civic duty as a parish councillor, question numerous residents on their recent whereabouts. It just so happens that those residents are all audience members, who volunteer to take on the roles and are then repeatedly summoned on stage to read from laminated scripts at Lydia's behest every time a new piece of evidence is uncovered and her suspicions shift. Those portraying eccentric local scientist Dr Sage, mathematics teacher Ms Lemon, heir to a 'toe-truck' empire Little Master Tommy Navy Blue and the mysterious Lavender Cook all get to share the stage with McVey's Lydia throughout the show, The most coveted role however, surely goes to whichever audience member takes on the role of PC Peach, a two-foot-tall puppet who's more interested in finally getting a spin at the tombola than solving crimes. There are real prizes to be won every time the on-stage tombola is spun too - with audience members during our performance walking away with everything from a doggy dental chew toy to a pack of Haribo and a copy of Calendar Girls on DVD. Due to the local church's stance on gambling, it’s a ‘win a prize every time’ kind of tombola, much to Lydia’s annoyance. Photo: Graeme Braidwood Over the course of an hour, the focus of McVey's consistently comical script slowly shifts beyond the cosy confines of Greenwold and its residents to examine the ideas of power, authority and the motivations driving those who hold it through the lens of H.P. Lovecraft-like cosmic horror. It's not until the show reaches its final fifteen minutes that - like in any good murder mystery - the true nature of the story finally becomes clear, leading you to reconsider everything that came before it. Wonderfully written, brilliantly funny and with enough twists and turns to keep you on your toes throughout, this interactive murder mystery has all the makings of a future Fringe favourite. Our only complaint? We didn't get a go on the tombola... ★★★★ A Foot is Not an Appropriate Prize for the Tombola runs at Attic at Pleasance Courtyard (Venue 33) until 31st August 2026 at 15:20. For more information and to book tickets, visit edfringe.com

This interactive family-friendly show from the creators of BATSU! invites would-be warriors into the dojo for some light-hearted games and challenges. Photo: DLW Photography The creative team behind late-night comedy game show BATSU! has a good few Fringes under their belt now. With comedians battling it out nightly to avoid punishments ranging from paintball guns to electric shocks, there are a lot of words you could use to describe the show (outrageous, chaotic and hilarious for starters..), but family-friendly isn’t one of them. Thankfully, their latest interactive show, GANBA!!, which debuts at Edinburgh Fringe this year, remedies that and reworks many of the elements that made BATSU! such a success into an hour-long show for both grown-ups and their little ones. The show’s story revolves around the ninjas and ninjas-in-training of the Batsu Dojo, as they prepare to defend themselves against the evil Batsu no Akumav (Spirit of Punishment). Through a number of interactive challenges, the show's younger audience members (and occasionally, their grown-ups too) take on a series of light-hearted, comedic tasks that promise to test would-be warriors' focus, agility, teamwork and courage and teach them the meaning of 'ganba' (which roughly translates to 'You've got this!' or 'Go for it!'). Photo: DLW Photography Sensei Marika (Mariko Iwasa) leads proceedings, acting as the show's de facto host, alongside a duo of acrobatic ninjas - Shinobi Yurika (Yurika Ono) and Shinobi Rina (Rina Maejima). Rounding off the four-strong cast is zealous American ninja-in-training Deshi Steve (Steve Zegers). All four do a solid job of injecting slapstick humour and energy into the show, but for us at least, it felt like the Shinobi's individual moments in the spotlight were largely there as filler to bulk out the show's runtime. While, of course, GANBA!! does away with the punishments being dished out in its adults-only sister show, those on stage may still be subject to something similar, albeit with a light touch. Audience members selected to play a game in which they hold inflatable katanas and freeze on the spot when the music stops will find themselves being blasted with bubbles and on the receiving end of a water gun in an attempt to throw them off. There's a wonderfully positive and encouraging feeling present in every moment of GANBA!!, which will no doubt resonate with children and adults alike, and plenty of opportunities for younger audience members to get involved, but as it stands, the show's uneven pacing holds it back from matching the giddy highs of its adults-only counterpart. ★★★ BATSU! Presents: GANBA!! runs at Friesian at Underbelly, Bristo Square (Venue 302) until 16th August at 11:05. For more information and to book tickets, visit edfringe.com

Is everyone having a nice time? Photo: The Garrett Theatre In the opening moments of exit strategy's wonderfully stressful How to Win a Gameshow, the full legal name of an audience member is read aloud by the show's host (Marykate Glenn), and they're invited to the stage. How their name was found and why they were chosen is unknown. They're the first of many audience members selected to take part in a popular game show, which has featured Graham (Rupert Krüger) as its star contestant for either 4 or 327 days. Across 55 minutes, Graham competes in a series of off-kilter games both alongside and against members of the show's audience in an attempt to leave the game. At least, he would leave if he hadn't already been conditioned to do exactly as he was told at all times, responding to clicks of a dog training device. How to Win A Gameshow looks to interrogate our relationship with surveillance, our complicity with the systems that track us, and our willingness to surrender what little privacy we have left. The audience is repeatedly placed in situations where they're never quite sure what information they're giving away or what might happen to it, creating an experience that's built around uncertainty, paranoia and the understanding that the audience aren't allowed to remain passive observers. Photo: The Garrett Theatre That uncertainty is established early on, when an early victory is secured by Graham and the audience member. After the game finishes, both stand with their hands interlocked and arms in the air, celebrating their victory as a camera operator (Jane Skapek) films the pair and takes close-up photos of the audience member's face. We don't know what will happen with those photos, but as a reward, they're given a piece of candy and sent back to their seat. The process repeats several times, with everyone happily having their likeness captured from up close, clueless as to what those photos could be used for. As the show progresses, audience members also find themselves revealing personal information about themselves with little hesitation, handing over everything from their postcode and several digits of their mobile number to their mother's maiden name (a common internet banking question) simply because they were asked for it. In much the same way Graham has been conditioned to do as told, the audience undergoes the same process, one step at a time. After a while, it becomes hard to tell if at any given moment, we're all being collectively tested, watched or manipulated, yet continue to play along anyway, doing exactly as we're asked. Overall, exit strategy's How to Win a Gameshow is an impressively crafted piece of immersive theatre that makes surveillance feel immediate and personal. Rather than telling the audience that they're being observed, it makes them ponder who could be watching on, what those in control have to gain from it, and how much of ourselves we've willingly handed over along the way. ★★★★ exit strategy's How to Win a Gameshow runs at Lower Theatre at theSpace @ Niddry St (Venue 9) until 15th August, and Venue 45 at theSpace @ Venue 45 between 17th and 22nd August 2026. For more information and to book tickets, visit edfringe.com See all of our Edinburgh Fringe coverage here.

Soleil Kohl's interactive choose-your-own-adventure tasks the audience with keeping its titular character alive as they venture home from a week-long bender at a festival. Photo: Sarah Shtern As anyone who's ever experienced the drive back from Glastonbury on a Monday lunchtime can tell you, the worst part of going to a festival is the journey home. For Daisy, the protagonist of Soleil Kohl's interactive choose-your-own-adventure Don't Kill Daisy, this fact is taken to an extreme, as they find themselves in a time loop, doomed to repeat their trek home from Burning Man over and over again while being relentlessly pursued by a fedora-wearing Bad Guy. The experience begins with Kohl standing centre stage, wrapped in a bin bag and sporting wrap-around sunglasses. In these opening moments, they're the Game Keeper, who advises each audience member to select a couple of items from an eclectic collection of bric-a-brac. These items will serve as the weapons, tools and armour used by Daisy once her journey is underway, though at first glance, it seems that many will be more of a hindrance than a help. After a brief pause (think of it as a loading screen), Daisy emerges on stage ready to begin her voyage home. Except she dies within seconds from lockjaw, respawning moments later with the memory of her previous demise. Over the next hour, little by little, Daisy begins to level up as the random items selected by the audience come into play. The audience's goal is simple: keep Daisy alive. Photo: Mikey Prine Throughout, the show wears its retro video game influences on its sleeve, with every level-up and death soundtracked by an 8-bit-style sound effect. On top of this, audiences have the option to return to the 'main menu' at any point, where they're able to customise their character (aka force Kohl to change outfits mid-show), watch the opening titles or ask the Game Keeper for hints. While every performance of Don't Kill Daisy plays out differently thanks to the ever-changing line-up of items chosen by the audience, the one constant throughout every performance is Kohl's commitment to creating the most outlandishly ridiculous experience possible. On more than one occasion on the night we attended, Kohl broke out into fits of laughter at the absurdity of the situation she'd just created for the show's protagonist, which we can only assume is a regular occurrence given the rapid-fire improvisation required to make the show work. Anyone who's seen Police Cops will know that these fleeting moments of unexpected laughter from those on stage are a joy to watch, and only ender us to Kohl's on-stage persona further. More so than perhaps any other show at the Fringe, Don't Kill Daisy puts the audience in total control of how things unfold, and their decisions have a meaningful impact on what happens, consequences be damned. Riotously funny, hugely interactive and full of heart, it's a wild ride from start to finish and a perfect late-evening choice for those in search of a final show before calling it a night. ★★★★ Don't Kill Daisy runs at Studio at theSpace @ Niddry St (Venue 9) from 7th to 15th August, and theSpace @ Surgeons' Hall - Haldane Theatre (Venue 53) from 17th to 22nd August 2026. For more information and to book tickets, visit edfringe.com See all of our Edinburgh Fringe coverage here.

Renowned painter Van Gogh stumbles into an immersive experience of his artwork in this interactive clown show from Donna Oblongata. Photo: Josh Yoder As a website that covers immersive work, we've attended more than our fair share of London's projection-based experiences in recent years. Whether they've depicted the reign of Cleopatra or Tutankhamun, the sinking of the Titanic or the destruction of Pompeii, the current wave of immersive exhibitions can largely be traced back to the numerous immersive Van Gogh experiences that sprang up around the globe in the mid 2010's and opened the door for this kind of experience to become mainstream. Regardless of whether you see them as a positive or negative for the wider immersive industry (there are arguments on both sides), their huge success has undoubtedly led to at least one good thing: inspiring Donna Oblongata to create the wonderfully chaotic interactive clown show, The Van Gogh Shogh, which runs at Assembly @ St Andrew Square until 30th August as part of Edinburgh Fringe. Photo: Josh Yoder The show's tranquil pre-show experience, complete with classical music playing over the speakers and one of Van Gogh's pieces being projected onto the back wall of the venue, is quickly interrupted by the arrival of a dishevelled, blood-and-paint-soaked gig-working Van Gogh, who pulls a bag of food from an Uber Eats delivery bag and searches the space for their customer. While looking around the space, Van Gogh notices their work is being projected onto the wall, and their face lights up, realising that at long last, they're going to get the recognition they deserve. Of course, that smile slips away as they realise that despite now being famous around the world, and having a room full of paying audience members there to see their work, they're not getting a penny from it and are still as broke as they ever were. What Van Gogh lacks in funds, though, is made up for with enthusiasm, as they happily take the audience through a whistle-stop tour of their work. There's a wonderfully deranged monologue about the emotional state of each potato in 'Still Life with Potatoes', a communal exercise in letter-writing, as Van Gogh crowdsources suggestions to send to their wealthy art-dealing brother begging for paint, and a rousing karaoke rendition of Meat Loaf's I’d Do Anything for Love (But I Won’t Do That).. Photo: Josh Yoder The show's centrepiece, in which four audience members are invited on-stage to paint their own version of Starry Night under Van Gogh's tutelage, sees the master painter guide participants through the process of creating such an iconic piece of work and allows Van Gogh the opportunity to wax lyrical about the personalities of each colour (yellow obviously has a pet dog, blue's lucky number is three, etc.) while those on-stage frantically paint their magnum opuses. Throughout the show, Oblongata proves to be a commanding presence, bouncing between antagonistic remarks, off-handed commentary on their lot in life and depressing references to Van Gogh's real-life indiscretions with self-deprecating humour. Underlying the whole experience is a central message exploring the ever-increasing commercialisation of art, the financial struggles of being an artist, and how those who create work are often undervalued by society at large. By the show's conclusion, audience members not only come away with a deeper understanding of just how hard it is to make a living in the arts, but, if they're lucky, a new piece of art to hang on their wall too. ★★★★ The Van Gogh Shogh runs until 30th August (excluding 12th, 19th, 26th) at Front Room at Assembly @ St Andrew Square (Venue 172) as part of the Edinburgh Fringe. For more information and to book tickets, visit edfringe.com See all of our Edinburgh Fringe coverage here.