one4review | On 13, Aug 2026

I arrive at Mysteries of the Picts completely unprepared.

I have no towel. I have no swimwear.

I’m not overjoyed when I discover I can rent two towels for £5 and a pair of trunks — although the money is going to charity.

Then I’m presented with what appears to be a multimillion-pound, purpose-built sauna theatre.

Conceived by director James Grieve and designer Lucy Osborne, Sauna Theatre is the largest sauna I’ve ever seen.

It seats 80 people around three enormous glowing sauna stoves.

The show begins by taking us through the history and traditions of sauna, eventually introducing us to the mysterious Picts of ancient Scotland. This is woven around explanations and demonstrations of different sauna rituals, while water, ice and herbs are placed on the coals.

I bravely choose the top level.

I am melting. I am enduring this. I am not used to heat.

The show is split into three sections, and just as I begin to feel faint after several rounds of towel-wafting that seem specifically designed to cook me alive, we’re released outside.

And there’s a wave of euphoria.

I find myself chatting to James Grieve, the director who came up with this extraordinary place. His original inspiration came in a Swedish sauna, when a woman began performing an Aufguss ritual, dancing and circulating fragranced hot air around the room with a towel.

“I looked around and realised I am sitting in an auditorium, and somebody is performing a show for me. I’m in a theatre.”

Standing outside his version of that idea years later, I ask him what the aim of all this is. He tells me he loved his morning sauna before a show

“Make people feel good.”

After a cold shower, we’re back inside for another dose of Pictish history, impressive towel dancing and clouds of cedar and herbs. By now I feel like a miniature roast: tender, thoroughly basted and ready to be eaten.

Again, we’re released for drinks, cold plunges, showers and conversation.

Something interesting has happened.

There’s a genuine sense of community because we’re all enduring the heat together. People are more relaxed. Strangers are talking. Conversations spring up around the cold plunge about local swimming spots.

Grieve describes saunas and theatres as essentially social spaces where people come together for a live experience: “No phones, no distractions.”

And that is exactly what seems to be happening.

Then comes the final section.

The steam, herbs, storytelling, history and heat combine until we find ourselves standing and cheering the performers who have somehow delivered an interesting, funny, relaxing mixture of dance, sauna ritual and storytelling theatre — and bonded a room full of strangers in the process.

I leave light-headed and about ten times more relaxed than when I arrived.

If only every show could make everyone feel this good.

5 stars *****
Reviewed by Stephen Sharp (Sharpie)
Sauna Theatre at Summerhall
Until 31st August (excl. 18th and 25th)
12.00 – 13.00