Edinburgh University Theatre Company

Bedlam Theatre is a fully operational, 90 seat theatre housed in a former Neogothic church at the foot of George IV Bridge in central Edinburgh. It is owned by the University of Edinburgh, and notable for being the oldest student-run theatre in Britain. During the summer, Bedlam Fringe is run as a separate enterprise, Bedlam being a long-standing Edinburgh Fringe venue.

Outwith Fringe, Bedlam is run by and home to the Edinburgh University Theatre Company (EUTC), who are so associated with the building that its members are often termed "Bedlamites", though the EUTC can and has staged performances in other venues since moving into Bedlam Theatre. Bedlam and the EUTC have hosted Edinburgh's longest running improvised comedy troupe, The Improverts, since their inception.

Bedlam Theatre is the former New North Free Church was built in the 1840s and was designed by Thomas Hamilton, an architect involved in the creation of Edinburgh's New Town. It is on the site of the old city poorhouse, and the name "Bedlam" is a to the nearby site of the city's first mental health hospital, where the poet Robert Fergusson died. After the building was abandoned by the church in 1937, the building was given to University of Edinburgh, who used it for various purposes including a furniture store and a Chaplaincy building.

During the 1977 Festival Fringe, whilst the building was still under control of the Chaplaincy, a musical adaptation of Master and Margarita written by Richard Crane and directed by his wife Faynia Williams was presented at the venue by the University of Bradford Drama Group. It went on to win a Fringe First award, garnering excellent reviews and became an iconic tale of success at the Fringe. This production showed that the building had potential as a theatre.

...
Wikipedia