Maia Kahn
This magazine is Binge Fringe, not Binge Marketing Copy Concerns, but I have to point out that the tagline on the festival website for this show, while gripping, is in my opinion, misleading: “Four people enter a sauna, three walk out. Over an hour, a group of strangers get hotter and hotter. So hot, they start to cook.” While the threat of danger is true, the script is not about people literally getting trapped in a sauna — characters come and go throughout the play and even with some solid hints at something in the room feeling scarily wrong, the drama is ultimately more human than environmental. Coco Cottam’s very funny and sharply observed satire of wellness culture punches slightly above its weight but is still an impactful watch.
Two half-sisters make an attempt at bonding while a monastic, erratic gym bro holds court in the sauna. Eventually Soph, who we learn has been struggling with her mental health and is desperate for both connection and reinvention, starts crushing on the jacked stranger, and the two enter a thrilling back-and-forth that teeters between flirtation and competition. Peter has dedicated his life to the pursuit of physical optimization, religiously visiting the gym (and sauna) and tracking his health stats. In a particularly strong scene, he teaches Soph about manifestation. His passion may have dangerous consequences, though, as we see when a fourth character shows up later in the show. When does wellness, justice, and intimacy become violence? Director Lydia Free maintains the sense that anything could happen in this supposedly serene setting.
Carmen Neat’s set design places two tiered rows of seats adjoining one other, making the audience risers almost feel a part of the constructed room. Characters traverse the heights and deposit essential oils into the steaming contraption between them. The plywood wall panels are flanked with glowing red, see-through material, lending the room a sensuality but also a danger. The transparency is used to great effect in the third act.
Cottam shows a lot of promise as a playwright, her work at times calling to mind the existential, banal claustrophobia of Edward Albee or Samuel Beckett. However, this play doesn’t completely stick the landing. The motivations feel relatively low-stakes (especially given the premise of the description) until an almost forcefully chaotic crescendo. Thermodrama could be shortened into pure satire or stretched into a true drama and really hit its stride; like Peter, it can clearly visualise its ideal form, but like Soph, it isn’t 100% sure what that is yet. As of now, it’s a satisfyingly temperature-raising slippery late-night fringe offering.
Recommended Drink: Dark Fruits Cider.
Catch Thermodrama at the Old Lab at Summerhall from 6-31 August (not 18, 25) at 22:30 (1 hour). Tickets are available through the EdFringe Online Box Office.
Tom Clayton
Roe McDonnell
Freddie Haberfellner
