Shows at Bedlam Theatre

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Vivarium

Vivarium

As anyone who’s been to an Edinburgh Festival Fringe can attest, word of mouth is crucial to a show’s success. There’s a reason Vivarium has been hot on the lips of many this year... 

Eight

Eight

Eight is daring and loud, with biting humour and an exhilarating power that thumps throughout the script. Made up of eight monologues, the play examines the effect that a sex, image and commerce-obsessed society has on young people... 

The Understudies

The Understudies

The Understudies is a completely improvised comedy musical that enjoyed a successful run at the Edinburgh Fringe 2017. Based entirely on audience suggestions, this long-form improv is a whirlwind of comical choreography and vocal prowess concerning the most mundane of objects and outlandish activities... 

FanDango

FanDango

Welkom to FanDango EyeLand. Kom drinke. Kom dansk. Hev enyThing. Bee enyWun. Hear arr DenniZens hav no Wurriez. Onlee Plezhur. Sette yore Trubbles asside en kom on in! 'Embarrassingly creative' ***** (BroadwayBaby... 

The Improverts

The Improverts

The Fringe’s longest running improvised comedy troupe enters into its 29th year at the Fringe! Returning for another year of fast-paced, high-energy and consistently enjoyable comedy based entirely on audience suggestions... 

Grail Project

Grail Project

Multi award-winning creators of Anton’s Uncles, Track 3, Big Shot and Hot Cat, Theatre Movement Bazaar assembles its ultra-modern troubadours for the company's latest adventure, the Grail Project, unraveling the Arthur Legend and Grail Myth... 

Late Night

Late Night

Late Night features one-off takeovers from the best of the fest, cabarets stuffed to the gunnels with LOLs, and even a couple of token straight white comedy dudes! Weird, hilarious stuff happening every night in a gothic church... 

(even) HOTTER

(even) HOTTER

'People are more fixated on flesh than ever before in history' (Ann, 97). HOTTER return to the Fringe with their crusade against embarrassment. Based on interviews with women and trans people aged 13 to 97, and devised by Mary Higgins and Ell Potter, this is a show about blushing, sweating, pinkness and pleasure... 

Pelican: Fisk

Pelican: Fisk

Brand-new whirlwind comedy by the critically acclaimed Pelican (makers of The Cat Man Curse). Blending surreal narratives with playful and interactive comedy, Fisk is madcap, uplifting and hugely entertaining... 

Ken Cheng: Best Dad Ever

Ken Cheng: Best Dad Ever

Dave Joke of the Fringe Winner, Cambridge mathematics dropout and professional poker player Ken Cheng returns this year with his second stand-up hour. Born to Chinese immigrants in the UK, Ken never had the most normal upbringing... 

Duke Pop

Duke Pop

Two rising stars split an hour of scorching hot stand-up. Sophie Duker is a social justice warrior princess with a dark secret and attention seeking hair. Lulu Popplewell is a child actor, turned recovering drug addict, turned comedian who wants to peddle her sweet shame to whoever is buying... 

Seanmhair

Seanmhair

The initial experience one is met with when the lights dim for Seanmhair (pronounced shen-a-var) is breathtaking. Flashes of light, dazzling expressive actors, intense dialogue delivered at breakneck speed as moments of levity are sprinkled amongst the drama effortlessly and sometimes so quickly the audience don’t catch them all... 

Britney in: John

Britney in: John

In 2011, Charly Clive and Ellen Robertson were women without a mission. Just out of school with no definite plans for university and holding down a couple of dead-end (and in one case, truly bizarre) gap year jobs, they needed focus for their creative energies... 

The Cat Man Curse

The Cat Man Curse

Deploying sketch comedy in its pinnacle form, Pelican, made up of ex-Footlights Guy Emanuel, Sam Grabiner and Jordan Mitchell, have put together a cohesive and hilarious narrative performance that defies full description... 

The Understudies

The Understudies

The Understudies is a brand new and completely improvised comedy musical coming to Bedlam Theatre this Fringe. Based entirely on audience suggestions with live music, this will be an hour of energetic, animated and hilariously frivolous comedy. 

Fix My Brain

Fix My Brain

A fresh new comedy about friendship, depression and that’s it from two ex-Presidents of the Cambridge Footlights. Dillon is a finalist in the 2017 Chortle Student Comedy Awards and member of Soho Theatre's Young Company of Comedians... 

The Improverts

The Improverts

I’m gonna start by saying this: I think reviewing improv is tough. The nature of the medium means it changes every night and is hard to be even slightly objective about. For the Improverts Fringe show, this is made even harder, because they change performers every night... 

Princes of Main: New Year's Eve

Princes of Main: New Year's Eve

A sketch show based on an end of 2017 new year’s eve party, Princes of Main: New Year’s Eve might miss the mark occasionally, but if you stick with it until the bells, it will ensure you’ll walk out full of new year cheer... 

Sugar & Salt

Sugar & Salt

Moni’s got guts and a promiscuous disposition. Minu has heart and a very big mouth. Together they bumble and blunder through student life, hook-ups and hangovers, declaring their greatest hopes and fears amidst the perpetual mess of their kitchen... 

Phools

Phools

The invigorating and inventive Babolin are winners of the 2015 Fringe Review Outstanding Theatre Award. ‘The talent of this incredible ensemble is quite stunning' (FringeReview.co... 

The Improverts

The Improverts

Always different, always funny, Edinburgh's longest running improvised comedy troupe is back behind Bedlam Theatre's big red doors for yet another year of lightning fast wit, expert tech, and high energy performances. 

Up the Hill Jackie

Up the Hill Jackie

Jackie is pregnant. Her sister Rita is forcing her to have an abortion. Is it too late to fix things? Dark, humorous, fast-paced Irish drama from the playwright of five-star Kitty in the Lane... 

Sofie Hagen: Dead Baby Frog

Sofie Hagen: Dead Baby Frog

Sofie Hagen won an award ages ago and she's still banging on about it. She is now doing her THIRD show. The confidence of this girl is appalling. This show is about anger and a funeral... 

Late Night

Late Night

Strap in tight to the most rad, bizarre, awe-inspiring comedy and alt-performance rollercoaster at the Fringe! We’re back for our third year with one-off takeovers from your favourites, cabaret stuffed to the gunnels with fun and a feeling of general satisfaction... 

Show Me the Money

Show Me the Money

After six years of austerity, is it even possible to be an artist and make enough money for luxuries like bread? Show Me the Money is a funny, inspirational show by multimedia artist Paula Varjack looking at how artists manage to support their creative dreams... 

Isaac’s Eye

Isaac’s Eye

From the start of his exploration of the scientific method, through the prism of the 17th century rivalry between Isaac Newton and the now little-remembered Robert Hooke, playwright Lucas Hnath gets his retaliation in first... 

Frost/Nixon

Frost/Nixon

It was the head-to-head that, even at the time, seemed almost unthinkable; a televised face-off between British chat-show host David Frost—certainly at the time not exactly known for delivering hard-hitting journalism—and the former US president Richard Nixon, who had been ultimately forced to resign from the White House thanks to his involvement in the Watergate scandal... 

Frost/Nixon

Frost/Nixon

It’s election year in the US. What better time to look back at one of America’s other most politically revolutionary moments: Richard Nixon’s Watergate scandal, and the British talk show host who aimed to withdraw the truth. 

[title of show]

[title of show]

If you’re a student theatre company with somewhat limited resources, but still want to try your hand at a reasonably successful Broadway musical, then [title of show] is arguably your ideal choice... 

Kursk

Kursk

In August 2000, a Russian nuclear-powered submarine, the K-141 Kursk, sank to the bottom of the Barents Sea following a technical malfunction, causing the deaths of all 118 people on board... 

Posh

Posh

Theresa May went to Oxford, but unlike Messrs Cameron, Osborne and Johnson, she could never have been invited to become a member of the infamous Bullingdon Club, to which Laura Wade’s play POSH has always been linked... 

Cosmic Fear or The Day Brad Pitt Got Paranoia

Cosmic Fear or The Day Brad Pitt Got Paranoia

This is a bold and ambitious production, brought to life by three very talented young actors: Sam Ducane, Jack Gordon, and Jessica Sian. This play is an intense, schizophrenic experience... 

Goodbear

Goodbear

Strong acting, impressive tech and a relaxed conceit tie together the disparate elements of this show and imbue it with a very different vibe to the majority of the sketch shows you will see this month... 

Infinity Pool: A Modern Retelling of Madame Bovary

Infinity Pool: A Modern Retelling of Madame Bovary

What to expect from Bea Roberts’ modern day update of Flaubert’s classic novel Madame Bovary? Instead of surrounding herself with romantic literature to distract her from the banality of provincial, rural France, Roberts’ Emma is an all too easily recognisable Bridget Jones-esque figure, believing she can buy herself happiness in the form of designer dresses and new shoes, and going so far as to reinvent herself with an online alter-ego... 

Stack

Stack

Mix together a dollop of Alan Partridge, a squirt of Bear Grylls and a spoonful of Stephen Toast and what do you get? Celebrity explorer, Stackard Banks! Stack is a hilarious comedy, following the journey of narcissistic adventurer Stackard Banks on his madcap quest to the Amazon rainforest... 

Switchboard

Switchboard

Interactive and immersive theatre company Produced Moon are back with Switchboard, a show about the spaces that shape our identity and allow us to be ourselves. A 24h community experience for you and your smartphone... 

Jam Sandwich

Jam Sandwich

Clown duo Sasha and Remy want to start their own TV show but something sinister is at work. Their dark imaginations combine to create a wonderfully terrible children’s TV show absolutely not for kids... 

The Improverts

The Improverts

The Improverts are a group of five students from the University of Edinburgh who bring hard-hitting, lightning-quick comedy to the stage. They are first-rate improvisers. You would be cheating yourself if you were to call them “mere University comedy... 

Le Bossu

Le Bossu

The scene is Notre Dame. A hunchback ‘hunches’ over in the bell-tower. A monolithic organ stretches up the back wall, standing guard over the proceedings. What follows is a thoughtful, if overly faithful take on Victor Hugo's novel The Hunchback of Notre Dame that never quite captures of the magic of the company’s past work... 

The Toyland Murders

The Toyland Murders

Like a family-friendly version of Sin City with hand puppets, The Toyland Murders follows the adventures of Inspector McGraw (Becca Jones) and her deputy as they attempt to track down a mysterious serial killer in a town full of toys... 

Late Night at Bedlam

Late Night at Bedlam

Every night of the Fringe there’s something different on at Bedlam. This year we’re hosting a different act every night as we bring you the best comedy the Fringe has to offer. The best stand-up, sketch and spoken word all stop by one of the oldest venues at the festival, making Late Night the best way to spend an evening at the Fringe. 

The Humble Heart of Komrade Krumm

The Humble Heart of Komrade Krumm

The invigorating and inventive Babolin are winners of the 2015 Fringe Review Outstanding Theatre Award. ‘The talent of this incredible ensemble is quite stunning’ (FringeReview... 

The Pillowman

The Pillowman

The Pillowman revolves around a writer, Katurian, who is being questioned by two detectives in a totalitarian state. Story upon story is told as the evening progresses, merging fact and fiction as the horrific truth surrounding Katurian is revealed. 

Jam Sandwich

Jam Sandwich

Join your pals Sasha and Remy as they explore with you the wonderful TV world of Jam Sandwich! This clowning comedy duo combine influences of mime, Commedia dell'arte and dark satire into a children's TV show most definitely not for kids. 

Cagebirds

Cagebirds

Leicester-born David Campton, who died in in 2006, was a prolific British dramatist, especially adept at writing thought-provoking one act plays that make us laugh as much as we might shiver in fear... 

Panopticon

Panopticon

Panopticon, written and directed by second year University of Edinburgh student Liam Rees, is set in a women’s prison, into which well-meaning dramatist Julia comes to run a series of workshops involving six selected inmates... 

Be Better

Be Better

‘This is the gospel of the modern age’ announces Elena, the exultant girl goddess. ‘I am pregnant with myself’ declares Saskia, acolyte of the me-me-me generation. Are you ready to #bebetter? You better be if you go to see The Urban Foxes Collective’s captivating new piece of devised theatre... 

Loch Ness Monster Hunter

Loch Ness Monster Hunter

From the creators of Vampire Hospital Waiting Room and GhostCop comes another cult pop culture theatre comedy show that once again gets its audience in hysterics. Back of the Attic have developed quite a following at the fringe - they’re almost the Simon Pegg, Nick Frost and Edgar Wright combo of the Edinburgh festival - and this is the third part of their own cornetto trilogy... 

The Improverts

The Improverts

As the members of Edinburgh University’s improv troupe run into the flashing lights, accompanied by music and applause, they are introduced to us as ‘the players’. It’s a title that fits: the company spend the next hour playing around in a number of improvisation games... 

The Glorious Damnation of Eddie Small

The Glorious Damnation of Eddie Small

The legend of Faustus, the man who sold his soul for knowledge, wealth and power is one which has been in the public consciousness for over 500 years. While Christopher Marlowe may have penned the definitive version of the tale back in the 16th Century, for many, the one which resonates strongest now is that of blues musician Robert Johnson, making a midnight bargain with a dark stranger for the talent to make a guitar sing to his tune... 

S.E.N

S.E.N

You can find the characters Taylor and Aalia in every comprehensive school in the country. Actually you can find lots of them. Taylor’s removal from her normal lessons into the intervention classroom is understandable from the moment she opens her mouth... 

The HandleBards: Secret Shakespeare

The HandleBards: Secret Shakespeare

Join the HandleBards on their bikes and cycle to a secret location in Edinburgh for a Fringe experience unlike any other. The HandleBards do Shakespeare differently. Reaching the Fringe after a 1500 mile cycle from London and performing with eight very sore legs, the four 'Bards present Shakespeare's plays as you've never seen them before... 

Ada

Ada

Meet Ada Lovelace, the 'poetical scientist', and daughter of romantic poet Lord Byron. A celebrity in her own time, this celebration of her life aims to restore her accomplishments and genius to the public eye, on the 200th anniversary of her birth... 

The Frantic Canticles of Little Brother Fish

The Frantic Canticles of Little Brother Fish

Babolin – 'breathtaking' (TotalTheatre.org.uk); ‘quite, quite brilliant’ ***** (BroadwayBaby.com) – welcome you to their monastery in deepest Depravia, where choristers chant and goose quills frantically scratch out the chronicle of an ancient quest... 

Flossy and Boo's Curiosity Shop

Flossy and Boo's Curiosity Shop

Double act Flossy and Boo present their curiosity shop, a magical hour of stories inspired by an eclectic collection of novelty objects in their mobile cart. Dressed in puff sleeved smocks, wild colourful wigs and baby doll make-up, sisters Flossy and Boo (Anja Conti and Laura Jeffs) warmly invite us into their dreamlike world, shaking hands with every member of the audience and asking everybody’s name on arrival... 

Big Shot

Big Shot

Big Shot is subtitled, “This is not The Godfather”. That’s about right. What it is, is The Godfather without the Godfather.The play uses Mario Puzzo’s famous novel (and even more famous movie adaptation) to explore the Corleone family dynamics, the relationship between actor and character, the romanticised image of the gangster, and the Italian American identity... 

As Is

As Is

New York, 1985. The city is in the grip of a disease called AIDS about which little is known. Rich, a young writer on the verge of a successful career is breaking up with Saul, his long-time lover, but his new romance is short-lived when he is diagnosed with the new condition and reconnects with Saul... 

Late Night

Late Night

Every night of Fringe there’s something different on at Bedlam. This year we’re hosting a different act every night as we bring you the best comedy the Fringe has to offer. The best stand-up, sketch and spoken word all stop by one of the oldest venues at the festival, making Late Night the best way to spend an evening at the Fringe. 

Foxfinder

Foxfinder

With England on the brink of collapse, the government have identified the enemy undermining the very fabric of society: the red fox. A foxfinder is sent to investigate a suspected vulpine infestation at the Covey farm... 

Edgar and Annabel

Edgar and Annabel

Only a clever or ignorant writer would deliberately choose to begin a play with that most egregious of sitcom clichés: “Hi Honey, I’m home.” So how to describe writer Sam Holcroft? Well, when the woman we see preparing food at the kitchen table turns to greet her apparent husband, the immediate puzzle is her surprise and horror... 

Equus

Equus

There's something particularly appropriate about experiencing Peter Shaffer's Equus at the Bedlam Theatre. It is a play, after all, in which a psychologist attempts to treat a young man who has a pathological religious fascination with horses... 

The Judas Kiss

The Judas Kiss

At one point in the first act of The Judas Kiss, Oscar Wilde admits to always having had “a low opinion of what is called action. Action is something my mother brought me up to distrust... 

Journey's End

Journey's End

With the death of the last surviving veterans a few years back, the so-called Great War of 1914-18 slipped from living memory, but some records remain preserved none-the-less, not least in R C Sherriff’s 1928 play Journey’s End, set in trenches near Saint-Quentin and inspired by his experiences as a captain during the fighting... 

The Real Inspector Hound

The Real Inspector Hound

When reviewing a play – especially one verging on farce – where two of the main characters are professional theatre critics, it’s hard not to become a tiny bit defensive of the reviewers lot... 

Games of Love and Chance

Games of Love and Chance

A witty piece of throwback theatre, Games of Love and Chance is quite the delight. Set in the late 1920s, it’s a classic Wodehousian tale of mistaken identity, constantly falling in and out of love and increasingly weird cocktails... 

Seawall

Seawall

Putting on Sea Wall at the Fringe is a bold move. Simon Stephens’ devastating monologue was written for and first performed in Edinburgh by Andrew Scott and, whilst there’s nothing wrong with performing works written for specific actors, Sea Wall seems like it should be an exception... 

Don't Let Go

Don't Let Go

This story concerns two workers at a coffee factory, their profit-focused/self-regarding employer, and the struggle for beauty or joy or play in an everyday life that has lost its fun... 

St Joan

St Joan

St Joan, an original production by the London based Pascal Theatre Company, is a brilliant, challenging show. Much original theatre lacks a complex, erudite script at its core. Even many great, original performances lack the courage to present a piece which could, in channelling avant-garde tendencies, potentially alienate their audience... 

Dear Mister Kaiser

Dear Mister Kaiser

In one of the more light-hearted representations of the First World War at the Fringe this year, Dear Mister Kaiser charts the result of one idealistic English soldier’s request to the German Kaiser: to be given temporary leave from his POW camp to visit his hometown... 

The Duck Pond
BOBBY WINNER

The Duck Pond

About halfway through this performance, a mobile rings in the audience. It’s Tchaikovsky. He wants to know if he’s getting any royalty payments. He’s not, the performers tell him: they’re only using six notes from the theme of Swan Lake... 

Yellow Moon: The Ballad of Leila and Lee

Yellow Moon: The Ballad of Leila and Lee

Stag Lee is going nowhere. He’s a delinquent whose only ambition is to make big money from a life of crime. Silent Leila is a celebrity-obsessed introvert who wishes she was in a story... 

Sheeps: Wembley Previews

Sheeps: Wembley Previews

Sheeps’ latest offering Wembley Previews is certainly a novel idea in that the sketch show takes the form of being a 'preview' for a gig at Wembley stadium before 90,000 people. The group attempts to perfect their opening aquarium-based sketch by exploring the countless interpretations each member has written, ranging from horror to mime to the surreal... 

The Lift

The Lift

A lift at full capacity is not what anyone could call comfortable at the best of times, and less inviting still is the idea of being trapped in said lift with no promise of escape and no real choice in companions... 

The Most Serious Ailments of St Krank's

The Most Serious Ailments of St Krank's

Forged in a farcical infirmary and armed with sumptuous surgical shanties, Babolin bring you their kaleidoscopic, quirky vision of the quackery of life and death. 10th anniversary production! Babolin are ‘breathtaking ... 

The Horror! The Horror! - The Final Curtain

The Horror! The Horror! - The Final Curtain

It's 1924 and Alfred Brownlow's music hall troupe is in trouble. Audience numbers are down, the critics are sharpening their knives and the wolves are at the door. But there's always time for one more show, and they've got a hell of a performance for you this evening! Inspired by a sell-out run at Wilton's Music Hall in 2012, The Horror! The Horror! - The Final Curtain is an all new evening of ghoulish mayhem and music hall glee... 

The Improverts: 25th Anniversary

The Improverts: 25th Anniversary

Always different, always funny. Edinburgh's resident and longest-running comedy troupe is back for their 25th Fringe. The Improverts promise yet another year of lightning fast wit, expert tech and high energy performances... 

This Is Living

This Is Living

Twelve hours after it happened, Alice waits with her husband, held between life and death. In the six years since meeting, they have found out what it is to love, to truly live and to create another person... 

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