Potterow – Pleasance Dome

Not to be confused with all the other ‘Pleasance’ festival venues even though it confusingly shares the name!
It’s a good place to gain shelter (and maybe a hot lunch) from the cold and wet outside — we all know that words like ‘August’ and ‘summer’ hold little weight with the Scottish weather gods.
The centrepiece of the building is obviously the huge glass domed roof which feels a little like you’re sitting in the Eden project. Or like you’re about to be beamed up somewhere by Scotty. Personally I loved it — awesome views of a fierce cloudswept sky whilst you’re snug indoors.
The signposting to various stages inside was sadly minimal/​wrong, so best to ask a chirpy volunteer where to go. Other than that, rest up between shows on the couches and keep an eye out for performers — we spotted one pop out to the bar for some dutch courage before braving the stage!!!

Review for The Pleasance Dome — During the Edinburgh Fringe.
This venue is one of the bigger ones. There is a real organised feel to it. They have a separate area for buying and picking up tickets. On the left they have a corner shop for your Fringe essentials, like water and snacks.
We went to see a show on Saturday evening (August 2) — Shappi Khorsandi. As a last minute purchase we were quite surprised to still have tickets available for such a show. The show was good!
The facilities of the Pleasance Dome during the Fringe are a little lacking. The toilets are always crowded. Again this is not surprising, but annoying nonetheless.
The relax, dining and social area is great. It feels like an indoor park. Lots of wood and seating.
I like it here, but as it is not somewhere I would visit outside of the Fringe it is difficult to imagine it NOT busy.

Want a flashback to your university days? A visit to the Pleasance Dome will do it, being set in the heart of the university and it has the ‘student essentials’ shop complete with pot noodles to prove it.
Each year it’s given a bit of a festival facelift, with large banners featuring caricatured comedians covering the walls with their exam results and timetables. It’s starting to look rather dated now.
On the positive side, this is a covered venue which can be a godsend in an average Edinburgh ‘summer’, has its own cashpoint and bar, and is pretty large providing plenty of seating between acts.
The theatres themselves are quite variable: some very small, others large enough to compete with the other venues. I did find all became suffocatingly hot in the recent Ed Fringe however, perhaps due to the unexpected good weather.
I guess it’s all part of the festival experience, but considering the cost of tickets and the quality of the act themselves, I tend to prefer those venues that don’t make me wonder if I ever truly graduated!

As an Edinburgh University student, Potterow, as it is known during the larger part of the year is probably my least favourite union building. For one, it lacks any architectural attributes (in my opinion) and is usually the coldest during the long winter months.
Funny enough, I can still picture it as the perfect festival venue. That ridiculous dome can finally be put to good use! It’s fantastic location-​wise, because the other venues are very close by (Teviot, George Square Theatre) forming part of what I like to call the performance hub!
I have to bow to the organizers and say it’s really been transformed into an attractive venue.

What a strange thing to see Potterow looking decent! It’s so clean and doesn’t smell of snake bite (cider + beer + black currant syrup for all y’all who don’t know). There are little to no students wandering around and consequently feels way more peaceful and less annoying than it does during the year (I know, I seem to really dislike my kind).
The EUSA shop and everything else seem to have disappeared behind a huge banner. It’s the home of many different venue spaces numbered Dome 1, 2, etc (very original, I know). It’s also quite confusingly named as the Pleasance Dome even though it’s in Potterow, but maybe other people are just more informed than I am about the whereabouts of venues and the changing of names.

I’ve no idea who designed this building, but it’s must be up there with some of the most ill-​conceived designs in history. The huge dome roof helps to maintain greenhouse temperatures in summer and igloo temperatures in winter. Lucky, then, that it turns into one of the best festival venues during August.
The Dome (Potterrow, for the rest of the year) plays host to a huge variety of shows — there’s comedy, drama, music and dance. They get many of the top names — the shows are put on by the London based Pleasance theatre, and there’s no shortage of quality.
There’s also bars, a festival version of the mosque kitchen (which you really shouldn’t go to — as Alex C. says, the most is literally a minutes walk away and much cheaper) and lots of seating space. It’s also open till 5am, and it’s always nice walking home during daylight. 4* for the venue, 1* for the roof.

What during the rest of the year is Potterrow becomes the Pleasance Dome during the Fringe. For some reason they have re-​named it Pleasance, despite there already being another venue with the same name, but if we look past this ridiculous decision it is pretty good. Upon entering the Dome you are in a big covered square, with rooms jutting off here and there, and some cafés inside. There is the Potterrow shop selling snacks, and the Mosque Kitchen open up a stall there, but to be honest it is almost twice the price and only about 5 minutes around the corner from the original.
The main point of the Pleasance Dome is as a comedy venue, and it is great for this. With so many rooms they have multiple shows on, and get top name comedy acts. The shows are reasonably priced as well, normally costing about a tenner each.
There are drinks available from the bar downstairs, and even if you are not watching a show then it’s a good place to have a chilled out drink