Bedlam Fringe returns with another exciting programme of theatre, dance and comedy. Uniquely located in a converted neo-gothic church at the heart of the Fringe, Bedlam Theatre is the year-round home of the Edinburgh University Theatre Company. Come watch one of our shows, or sit down for a drink or snack in our cosy Fat Cat Café. 

Proposal Day – four theologians at a sleepy seminary are soon to be ordained. In an apartment living room only yards away from the campus, these students on the brink of maturity find themselves caught in a sexual square-dance where feelings run riot, intelligence is victim to desire and games of wit, chance and smarts can bring time to a deafening standstill. Playing Love is a comedy of manners – about faith, devotion, sex and luck – taking on the Fringe after a sold-out run in St Andrews. What d’you say? Heads or tails?

Playing Love. An Episcopal Sex Comedy

Two girls find themselves trapped in limbo following their sudden deaths, only to discover that they are not alone. Someone else is here, watching them, determining who gets to leave and who gets left behind. Haunted by their deaths and the lives they've lost, the two must battle each other and their own demons to face what they’re truly willing to do to escape. A gruesome yet tender exploration of girlhood, this collage of memories, music and Y2K pop culture questions how young women survive in a system that asks them to tear each other down.

Perfect Dead Girls

How To Kill Your Landlord is a fatal comedy of errors focusing on three young housemates... Burke, a former student activist, living from paycheck to paycheck. Harriet, a freelance yoga instructor desperate to corner the yummy mummy market. And Joq, a crypto bro forever on the hunt for his new side hustle. Though seemingly polar opposites, all three are united in their contempt for chauvinistic landlord Archie, who has just decided to evict them! Taking a lead from Crime and Punishment, the trio put dark plans into motion, with hilarious and deadly consequences...

How To Kill Your Landlord

Alternative comedy takes over Bedlam Fringe! See the most exciting acts from all over the UK in a curated lineup of one-off weirdness. From live Scalextric tournaments to a Midlands themed brawl, there's something different every night. 'Intelligent, anarchic, format-breaking comedy' (Chortle.co.uk). Full lineup at bedlamfringe.co.uk/late or drop by the venue.

Bedlam Late

The world is over: rancid eels reign! Intrepid Fools unleash their freakishly fanciful third Fringe show. A disgraced eel scientist and his hopelessly hungry lab assistant are humanity’s last, least qualified hope. Will they prevent the Eel-pocalypse or pledge allegiance to our new slimy overlords? Will you be on the right slippery side of history? High-stakes absurdity, deep-sea conspiracies, and an alarming amount of eel facts in this eel-ectrifying, surr-eel and frantically fishy farcical comedy. 'Captivate us from start to finish' ***** (DeadlineNews.co.uk). 'Fast-paced, hilarious and utterly charming' **** (The730review.co.uk). 'Lots of action... plenty of laughs throughout' **** (One4Review.co.uk).

Eelmageddon

Colly, Kaia, Mercy and Theo have shared a decade of highs and lows – promotions, breakups, illness and recovery. They know the quiet strength of true love, both platonic and romantic, and the power of unwavering belief in one another. In an often unkind world, they are each other’s constant. But when someone close to them goes missing, they confront a brutal reality: survival isn’t guaranteed in a world steeped in violence against women. As grief and rage take hold, they face injustice, media bias and a society that refuses to change. Unflinching, timely and deeply moving.




love you, bye

Blessed with beauty, wealth and charisma, the Flawless Four – Courtney, Julie, Marcie, and Liz – are the most popular girls in Reagan High school. Courtney, Julie, and Marcie decide to prank Liz for her birthday, but it goes horribly wrong – and ends with Liz choking to death on a jawbreaker. Based on the cult classic 1999 film, Jawbreaker: The Musical brings murder, lies, and delicious drama to the stage with a book from its original writer, Darren Stein, music by Jeff Thomson, and lyrics by Jordan Mann.

Jawbreaker: The Musical

Listed in The Stage's Best Shows at EdFringe2025, this bold, rule-breaking play returns following sold-out London performances. 300 years ago, a diary was discovered on remote Ascension Island – the only record of a castaway punished for sodomy. With sharp new writing, bursts of laughter, and joyous moments of hope, Ascension tells a timeless story of queer resilience and survival. Staged in a 19th-century Gothic church, Ascension travels thousands of miles in fifty minutes, yet lingers long after. 'I laughed, I cried, I wished I'd brought tissues' **** (TheStage.co.uk). ***** (The Student Newspaper). ***** (PrideNomad.com). **** (TheWeeReview.com). **** (BroadwayBaby.com).

Ascension

When it comes to the bizarre and outrageous at the Fringe’s longest-running improv-comedy show, best to think all of the above – watch rival butchers battle it out at the laundromat, Queen Lizzie running a chippy, or any number of wild and wacky scenarios you can think up. A show based entirely on audience suggestions, come along for an hour of ferocious, five-star, fast-paced sketch comedy that’s sure to take your breath away (literally)! And who knows… the bravest of you may end up on stage yourselves! The Improverts – always different, always funny (since 1989).


The Improverts

Paradok Platform presents: Unwelcome: Andrew's carefully curated London life is upended when his sharp-tongued little sister Tracy shows up unannounced. A raw, funny and heartfelt play about identity, belonging, shame-and hiding parts of yourself… badly. A Cats Parasite, inspired by the stranger-than-fiction Jeremy Thorpe scandal, a forgotten tale of love and murder, set in the twisted, queer chaos of 1960s London. Finally, Russian Roulette, a brand spanking new dark comedy about a never ending game of Russian Roulette, this intimate and absurdist two hander promises to answer: why oh why won't one of them just die already?

Paradok Platform 2025

Jim is dying. With his son Mark at his bedside, he's expected to pass away in his sleep. It is the ideal way to go... except for the fact that he refuses to die. When the Devil arrives to collect his soul, she assumes it will be a run of the mill damnation... but she didn’t expect Jim’s family to put up such a fight. In this black comedy, family tensions are exposed, regrets are laid bare, and the Devil is forced to confront her very own demons, all alongside the ticking clock of eternal damnation.

Sins of the Mother

‘Incredibly funny and genuine in its expression of human connection’ (TheBroadOnline.com). A psychic, a musician and a politician walk into a… train. No, it’s not the start of a bad joke but it is the beginning of the end. Of the world. Join six strangers stuck on a tube (literally) dancing with death. 80s hits and nuclear disaster! Sounds like a laugh, right? Packed with old loves, last wishes and a healthy dose of existentialism, maybe at the end of it all, people are all we have.

The End of the Line

What happens when you're stuck between where you've been and where you're going? Set in the most unlikely of afterlife waiting rooms – a stalled lift – five strangers ascend toward something greater when a sudden halt forces them to confront more than just mechanical failure. Tensions rise, truths unravel and the weight of the past becomes impossible to ignore. What begins as a journey upward spirals into a haunting exploration of guilt, forgiveness and what it means to move on.

What We Carry

During a routine visit to read the last rites to a condemned prisoner, a priest finds himself trapped inside a jail cell when a violent riot erupts. Forced into close quarters with a convicted murderer, the two engage in a tense and soul-searching conversation that challenges both of their beliefs. As chaos reigns outside, the priest witnesses the prisoner’s brutal reality firsthand, culminating in a radical decision...


The Last Rites

A Saudi play set in a dreary office where employees move through each day on autopilot. One day, Fawzi, the department head, suddenly snaps. He stands on a desk and breaks the silence with a desperate outburst, questioning the point of their repetitive lives. But nothing changes. Time resets. The same conversations and silences return, trapping everyone in an endless loop. More than a workplace drama, The Hoop reflects modern life. It holds up a mirror to our routines, our quiet fears and the invisible cages we live in, asking what it takes to break free.

The Hoop

Tressa’s dad died. And then she killed everything else. She wants to confess to you, and ideally, a television homicide detective, while singing and talking about angels. This daughter of Appalachia and former boss bitch hoots and hollers and figures things out in this not-exactly-a-memorial-service of a show about the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. If she can even figure out what that is. Gooder Than Gold is a world premiere cussin’ and cryin’ live action memoir with music that encourages wailing in Wal-Mart and laughing at all of life’s janky funerals.


Gooder Than Gold

Joke Experts

OFFIE award-winning, critically acclaimed one-woman tragicomic history, written entirely in rhyming iambic pentameter, telling the true story of Nell Gwynne, the famous actress/prostitute and mistress of the wild British monarch, King Charles II. FringeReview Outstanding Theatre Award 2024. 'An outstanding gem' (FringeReview.co.uk). 'A standout solo show – perfect!' (BroadwayWorld.com). 'Smith‘s writing is exquisite... Simply put, this play is a work of genius' ***** (Pink Prince Theatre). 'A spellbinding, accomplished performance' **** (TheReviewsHub.com). 'An extremely strong performance' **** (BroadwayBaby.com). 'Adele is mesmerising' ***** (London Pub Theatres Magazine). Reviews: https://www.londonpubtheatres.com/review-pretty-witty-nell-by-ryan-j-w-smith-at-barons-court-theatre-22-26-july-2025, https://asscenewitheithne.squarespace.com/asscenewitheithnereviews/pretty-witty-nell, https://www.pinkprincetheatre.com/post/review-pretty-witty-nell-barons-court-theatre

PRETTY, WITTY NELL

Ex-professional golf coach to the great Donald J. Trump, this unique and hysterical journey will bring many laughs – all through the eyes, highs and lows of Ex-USPGA golfer, Mr. G. F. Dicklitter Jr. From touring with Tiger Woods through to the wild times of the Trump administration, he takes us on a journey through his few triumphs and many disasters. All alongside social commentary, anecdotes, songs and guaranteed laughter. If ever there was a tonic to the wild in the world, this is it.

Following Through!

An Offies Assessor's Choice listing, Candy tells the semi-autobiographical story of Candy and Dan. During a 1980s Sydney summer, their love blossoms quickly, and in their desire to share everything, Candy tries heroin. This marks the beginning of their descent. Candy, based on Luke Davies' (Academy Award nominee) novel, was first brought to international attention in the 2006 film starring Heath Ledger and Abbie Cornish. The show blends physical theatre with stark, narrative realism. Praised by Gawn Grainger as 'exhilarating, evocative and utterly unmissable theatre', Candy received a five-star review from VoiceMag.uk.

Candy

A burgeoning Edinburgh-based performing arts event running every month, now at the Fringe! A whistle-stop tour of some of Edinburgh's best and brightest new writing premiering at this year's Festival Fringe... with a twist! Fresh from July 12th 1960, the star of this show will be the mighty etch-a-sketch, arguably the most important tool for any self-respecting cultural commentator. Want to find out how exactly these two things are connected? Or are you actually interested in art? Either way, we welcome you with open arms.

A Stop on the Road

Ken Palmer's one-man show about navigating this world with multiple sclerosis, music and love songs. Rough-hewn the wheelchair drum set puppet, shares his most meaningful thoughts, stories and songs. All shows free. All welcome: relaxed, inclusive, family-friendly show. Wheelchair-accessible theatre.

ROUGH-HEWN'S 24 HOUR OPEN MIC

Where every turn of the kaleidoscope reveals a new emotional landscape. Exploring the spectrum of colour that makes up all the shades of what it means to be human. Follow Soul (our inner self), Aura (our outer self), Echo (our memories) and The Mirrorbearer/Narrator (reflection), as well as the different Hues that make us HUEman – our joy, fear, sadness, passions, losses and triumphs. Turn your vision inwards, turn the colour up. Every shade tells a story.

Bedlam Theatre

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