Liam Rudden: The sauna is just one venue too far, thanks

THE problem with show descriptions in the Fringe programme is that they are often so vague that you never quite know what to expect.

The reason, of course, is that many of them are submitted long before the material they are promoting has even been written - although I suspect others are left deliberately vague for any one of a number of reasons.

The most useless listings of all, however, are those that consist of nothing but quotes and star ratings from previous years.

How does your five-star rating from 1977 have any relevance to your 2012 production? Okay, I exaggerate, but you get my drift.

Even those that hint at the contents of a piece can disguise a multitude of sins, a thought that floated through my mind as I sat in a small, cramped sauna this week, watching a naked performer, well perform... badly.

When I say sauna, it was actually a small converted room that may have well been a sauna, by the end of the 50-minute show the entire audience were soaked in sweat - the cast probably had the right idea,

At any other time, faced with such a mind-numbing and uncomfortable experience most would have walked out. But this is the Fringe where, not only are venues unbearably hot, worse, many have no means of escape...

Well, they do, as long as you are prepared to walk across the stage and join in the action on your way out.

In this day and age I no longer accept that this has to be the case. Venue managers, it’s your job to ensure audience enjoy their visit to the Fringe.

Many of the larger venues have realised that if people have a bad experience they won’t come back, and many of the most intimate rooms operated by the big four are now far more comfortable than they were even a couple of years ago.

It’s time for the rest to catch up.