The Pleasance is a theatre, bar, sports and recreation complex in Edinburgh, Scotland, situated on a street of the same name. It is owned by the University of Edinburgh, and for nine months of the year it serves the Edinburgh University Students' Association as a societies centre, sports complex, student union bar and entertainment venue. [1]
Every August, it is converted into one of the main venues for the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. The Pleasance Theatre Trust operate the venue during this time, and in this guise the complex is sometimes referred to as Pleasance Edinburgh to distinguish it from a sister venue, also called The Pleasance, that the trust opened in Islington in London in 1995.
The Pleasance complex consists of a number of separate buildings, with the main block situated around a central, cobbled courtyard.
The main block houses two bars, The Pleasance Bar and The Cabaret Bar, situated in adjoining rooms with a removable partition in-between. Upstairs from these, also in the main block, is the main Pleasance Theatre. Unlike other university buildings, all these spaces are open to the public year round, without the need for student identification. The Cabaret Bar and Theatre host a programme of live events throughout the year, including the Pleasance Sessions music festival and regular live music, comedy, spoken word and poetry nights. It is also home to Edinburgh Folk Club. [1]
The rest of the complex contains rooms and meeting spaces which can be booked out for society use. [1] In a building towards the rear of the plot is the Pleasance sports centre and gym. [2]
Every August, the whole complex is converted into a variety of performance spaces under the aegis of The Pleasance Theatre Trust. The main theatre, capacity 320, and renamed Pleasance One for the duration of the Fringe, is one of these. The Cabaret Bar (capacity 175) is another. Other spaces range in size from the 750-seat Pleasance Grand (within in the sports centre) to the 50-capacity Cellar. [3] For the purposes of the Fringe brochure, all these spaces are collectively called Pleasance Courtyard, and listed as venue 33. [4]
As one of the “Big Four” venues, programming at the Pleasance is perceived to be of a high standard, featuring nationally-recognised acts, with a tendency towards comedy and cabaret. The courtyard becomes "the biggest beer garden in the city" for the month of August. [4]
Although 2024 marks the Pleasance Theatre Trust’s “40th Fringe programme”, the venue’s historic connection with the Edinburgh Festival Fringe goes right back to the beginning, with the venue hosting two of the eight productions which made up the inaugural Edinburgh Festival Fringe 1947.
During August, the Pleasance Theatre Trust also operates out of Potterrow, an entirely separate student union building closer to the University’s main Southside sites, and the Edinburgh International Conference Centre. To avoid confusion, these are branded as "Pleasance Dome" and “Pleasance at EICC” during the Fringe, and have distinct venue numbers 23 and 150 respectively.
The Edinburgh Festival Fringe is the world's largest performance arts festival, which in 2018 spanned 25 days and featured more than 59,600 performances of 3,841 different shows across 322 venues. Established in 1947 as an unofficial offshoot to the Edinburgh International Festival, it takes place in Edinburgh every August. The Edinburgh Festival Fringe has become a world-leading celebration of arts and culture, surpassed only by the Olympics and the World Cup in terms of global ticketed events.
Edinburgh University Students' Association (EUSA) is the students' union at the University of Edinburgh, Scotland. The Association's aim is the advancement of education of Edinburgh students by representing and supporting them, and by promoting their interests, health and welfare within the community. It is led by a team of five elected student sabbatical officers.
The Pleasance is a street just outside the Old Town of Edinburgh, Scotland, a remnant of the Flodden Wall flanking the west side of the street between Drummond Street and the Cowgate. Historically, the street was one of the main routes into Edinburgh from the south, meeting St Mary's Wynd at St Mary's Wynd Port, one of the gateways of the town walls. The name derives from the Scots plesance, meaning a park or garden. It first appears in 1507 as the name of a nearby house, and was later transferred to the street and then the suburb which was part of the regality of the Canongate. The derivation of the name from a nunnery of St Mary of Placentia, often mentioned in histories of Edinburgh, is an invention by William Maitland in his 1753 History of Edinburgh.
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The Pleasance Theatre Trust is a venue operator and producer of live events, known internationally for being one of the major, so-called "Big Four", operators at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, the world's largest arts festival. The trust is named after The Pleasance, the students' union venue complex which it runs in Edinburgh during the Fringe, although the organisation's operations have expanded from that original base to include other venues, the Potterrow Student Centre during the Fringe, Pleasance @ EICC, and a year-round base in London, Pleasance Islington.
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