The brilliant, brilliant Bedlam. Not only does it boast one of the cheapest watering holes in Edinburgh, serving hearty soups and pizzas during the day, but its programme consistently strikes a winning balance between crowd-pleasers and risk-takers, family shows and late-night filth-fests, and all at an exceedingly affordable price. Indeed, barring the Free Fringe, the Bedlam is often the only place in the last week where you can see anything decent for under a tenner!
This year, a block of Bedlam stalwarts return with some fresh offerings. The brilliant Gomito bring their new piece The Alchemystorium, while the super-talented RashDash will seek to repeat the success of last year’s Fringe First-winning Another Someone with Scary Gorgeous. Crowd favourites The River People set up shop underground in the brand-new Bedlam Chambers with their show Little Matter, and two of the talents behind punk-musical The Inconsiderate Aberrations of Billy the Kid present a new play, The Perils of Love and Gravity.
Less familiar but no less exciting: FellSwoop present an adaptation of the beloved French animation Belleville Rendezvous; there’s a new production of Simon Stephens’ modern classic Bluebird, and Bobby Gordon takes a fresh look at the one-man show (by way of Boogie Nights) with the excellently titled Debbie Does My Dad. The Bedlam will also play host to the Kindling Project’s exciting debut: Vertigo. Masterminded by the ever-reliable Rich Rusk (of Night Light Theatre), Kindling provides support for emerging artists to develop work and challenge their practices. Vertigo certainly sounds challenging, with two improvised solo shows performed alongside (and over the top of) each other!
Operating for the rest of the year as Edinburgh University’s main performance venue, in August the Bedlam showcases the city’s best student drama and comedy – although if you’re the kind that scoffs at student drama on the Fringe, it is worth remembering that the pricing at the Bedlam keeps everything well within the category of ‘affordable risk’.
The giant blackboard schedule, handily hung from the railings in Bristo Square, is as much a Fringe landmark as the venue itself, and regularly fills up with four- and five-star reviews, but you won’t need that to tell you whether something at the Bedlam is a hit: the queue will be spilling right out of those red doors and onto the street. Magic.
