Review: K Mak at the Planetarium | Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2025
- Lisa in the theatre
- 5 hours ago
- 3 min read
K Mak at the Planetarium fuses live cello, violin, synth and vocals with cosmic visuals. Continually selling out her homeland Australia, K Mak's unique show comes to Edinburgh Fringe for August 2025. K Mak at the Planetarium plays multiple times per day in the Demonstration room at Summerhall throughout the festival.
K Mak at the Planetarium, Edinburgh ★★★☆☆
review: 13 August 2025 | Summerhall, Edinburgh Festival Fringe
K Mak at the Planetarium is an original music project from renowned Australian cellist Kathryn McKee. McKee has performed with Kanye West, Eminem, Opera Queensland and a host of other global music stars. Here she draws on that experience to create her own unique planetarium show where her ethereal synth-led electro-pop music fuses with classic cello and violin to coordinated visual projections of nature, the cosmos and more.
Home for K Mak at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe is the quirky 100 year-old Demonstration Room lecture theatre at Summerhall (an old former veterinary school.) Summerhall is one of my favourite buildings, not only in Edinburgh, but in the world. Its corridors overflow with interesting spaces and history. But by no stretch of the imagination can the Demonstration Room double as a Planetarium.
The vivid projections in 'K Mak at the Planetarium' do cover the entire back wall of the unconventional room but they are interrupted by piping, smoke alarms and if you look a little higher (and due to the nature of this show, you do look higher) peeling paint and general disrepair. Now normally that kind of thing just adds to the wonderful quirkiness of seeing a performance at Summerhall, but here the word 'Planetarium' in the show title does conjure up certain expectations. A modern space with a full dome 360 experience and reclining chairs would've been optimal! (But at under £20 per ticket, I understand, perhaps unrealistic.)
To experience this show in that kind of environment must be magical. As it is 'K Mak at the Planetarium' at Edinburgh Fringe is a still a worthwhile hour out of your day and a very welcome break from the frenzy of the festival. The atmosphere feels sort of like a chill-out room where K Mak stands with her 3 superb musicians (a cellist, violin player and drummer) holding sermon over the small, darkened lecture room as she spins through a music set filled with her original, laid-back hypnotic beats.
The projected visuals themselves are of varying quality: The natural elements, sea creatures and galaxies beautiful, but some of the more generic mandals less enticing. However, K Mak at the Planetarium really is a wondrous and enjoyable hour - I felt my heartbeat drop for the first time in a week! If you're looking for something to calm your mind amidst the onslaught of comedy, cabaret and chaos at Edinburgh Fringe, this could be it.
K Mak is extraordinarily talented. Her music and vocals are almost otherworldly, and the group of global musicians she has assembled for these shows in Edinburgh are world-class. It's just not presented in a space that optimally showcases her vision. Naturally I could see this show working beautifully in a typical planetarium dome, the audience lying back, drifting off, enveloped in a sensory bubble; but I could also see it working well in a nightclub setting - a late night or early morning chill-out room with dancers swaying their hands, eyes closed, held in a trance by K Mac's dreamlike music. There's absolutely nothing to stop you swaying and chilling out in the Demonstration Room at Summerhall of course. ★★★☆☆
Additional notes:
1) This show is listed on edfringe.com as 'theatre' It is not theatre imho. It's a unique music experience.
2) The photos I have used in this article were provided by the show and while lovely, they do not accurately represent how 'K Mak at the planetarium' looks in the Demonstration Room at Summerhall in Edinburgh. There is no dome! I just want to be clear about that for my readers, as I find the photos a little misleading for what is on offer in Edinburgh. But I don't have any other images to use.
K MAK At The Planetarium at Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2025
Venue: Summerhall, Demonstration Room
Dates: 31st July – 24th August (Not 11th or 18th)
Time: 12:00, 14:00, 17:00, 19:00,
Duration: 1 hour
Ticket Price: From £10
