25 Years of Bedlam a History of the Edinburgh University Theatre Company: 1979-2004
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(EDINBURGH: 2016) Anna Sophia Watts, "Edinburgh: The All Singing, Dancing, Acting City", Study in the UK (2012) [studyinuk.universiablogs.net/2012/03/27/edinburgh-the-all-singing-dancing-acting-city]. 25 YEARS OF BEDLAM A HISTORY OF THE EDINBURGH UNIVERSITY THEATRE COMPANY: 1979-2004 BY FERGUS DEERY UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGH School of History, Classics & Archaeology B024197 With thanks to… Anthony & Susan Deery Dr Trevor Griffiths Alex Greenwald Jon Webster Alastair Broom Chris Fleming Chris Cooke Owen Dudley Edwards Dr Roger Savage Thom Dibdin Adam Alton Emily Ingram Patrick Evans Ben Twist Richard Hogg Lizzie Barrett Christabel Anderson Natalie Adzic Megan Lu Joe Christie Alvaro Jurado Niall Walsh Tabitha James Andrew Loudon Thom Tuck Christopher Sladdin Idil Sukan, for first sparking the idea... … and everyone else who has made Bedlam so. 2 B024197 Contents Introduction: Rise of the Bedlamites ................................................................................................. 4 Chapter One: Talent without ceiling ................................................................................................ 12 Chapter Two: Blood, sweat, or tears? ............................................................................................. 20 Chapter Three: Death of the Fat Cat, and new life .......................................................................... 29 Conclusion: Half-finished ................................................................................................................. 38 Appendix 1: Timeline of EUTC Presidents in the Bedlam era .......................................................... 41 Appendix 2: Timeline of key dates ................................................................................................... 43 Bibliography ..................................................................................................................................... 44 3 B024197 Introduction: Rise of the Bedlamites A historian should always be able to justify his worth to the man at the bus stop. - Dr Trevor Griffiths, Historian and bus stop-frequenter (September, 2015). In 1973, the Edinburgh University Drama Society moved into the Crown Theatre at 19/20 Hill Place, dropped the second half of its title in favour of ‘Theatre Company’, and adopted a new mascot-cum- logo in the form a fat cat – based on a picture taken from the back of a cereal packet – to herald the change. Here the Edinburgh University Theatre Company (hereafter ‘the EUTC’, or ‘the Company’) resided happily for six years, until licensing complications meant it needed once more to be rehoused by spring 1979. How the EUTC then came to find itself in the University of Edinburgh’s (hereafter ‘the University’) Old Chaplaincy, located at the end of George IV Bridge, is in part the subject of this study; for now, though, it suffices to say that the Company had, by August 1987, consolidated its position, under the terms of a Buildings Agreement which guaranteed that it would only ever be made to leave Bedlam Theatre (hereafter ‘Bedlam’) – as the building was now known – should an equal or superior venue become available. And so, for the next 13 years, Bedlamites came to call their eponymous house a home, and so flourished in their surroundings that the Edinburgh University Student Association (EUSA), which oversaw the EUTC and all other University societies, awarded the Company ‘Society of the Year’ in 1997.1 It was all the more shocking, then, when the University announced its intentions to sell the EUTC’s home of two decades just three years later, so that the building might be demolished and rebuilt as a hotel by ESK Properties (hereafter ‘ESK’); and only after a three-year struggle which embroiled multiple parties across the city and beyond did the debacle finally end. Ultimately, though, 25 years after its establishment, Bedlam, in its novel glory as the only entirely student-run theatre in Britain, lived to tell the tale, and have a tale or two told about it in turn. 1 ‘Bedlamite’ denotes both past and present members of the EUTC. 4 B024197 To be sure, novelty does not necessarily predicate significance, but nor has the EUTC’s reputation endured by simple virtue of its quirks. Certainly, its license agreement is special; and granted, its democratic administrative procedures are alien to most modern theatre owners; but the Company’s history is, at the crux, important precisely because it operates independently of industry norms. As such, this humble contribution to the nascent discipline of Scottish theatre history intends therefore to demonstrate how the same essential end-goal of running a venue can and has been achieved under unorthodox circumstances, underpinned, all the while, by exceptional aims. To do this, it explores the ways in which the EUTC’s artistic, administrative, and financial trajectory has been determined, over several generations, by the Company’s exploitation, development, and occasional transformation of Bedlam. The building is, after all, central not just to the EUTC, but the arts industry as a whole – its long- cultivated, unceasing charm having been remarked upon by an eclectic mix of those who ought to know. Ex-Bedlamite Greg Wise, who has since grown accustomed to the sets of the West End and Hollywood, maintains that ‘It would be a crime’ to get rid of Bedlam since ‘there’s so much history oozing from the walls’;2 during his tenure as Director of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe (hereafter ‘the Fringe’), Paul Gudgin was similarly ‘struck by [Bedlam’s] energy and by the unique atmosphere’;3 and The Guardian ranked the theatre as one of Edinburgh’s top ten performance venues as recently as 2011.4 And unlikely as it sounds, this interminably cold de-consecrated church is held in equal awe by aspiring young artists, many of whom have been drawn to the University of Edinburgh precisely because there was a student-run theatre.5 Jon Webster, editor of the Company’s inaugural and thus- far only published history, Edinburgh’s Bedlam Theatre, marvelled in 1991 that the ‘fanatical dedication’ of Bedlamites ‘led many to give up their courses at university, and concentrate on 2 Greg Wise, in The Sunday Times: Home (August 10th, 2014), p.2. 3 Paul Gudgin, in Friends of Bedlam, Paul Gudgin Testimonial (Video) (2014) [www.youtube.com/watch?v=RG- p5TfeU20]. 4 "10 of the Best Theatre and Performance Venues in Edinburgh", The Guardian (2011) [www.theguardian.com/travel/2011/oct/12/10-best-theatre-venues-edinburgh]. 5 Friends of Bedlam, Bedlam: The Documentary, Part 1/2 (Video) (2009) [www.youtube.com/watch?v=iHcR5m9lmA0]. 5 B024197 theatre.’6 Since then, Bedlam has remained a second home to amateur theatre-enthusiasts who find themselves in the festival city out-with festival season. The Guardian Children’s Fiction Prize winner (2011) Andrew Mulligan accordingly jokes that his parents ‘cursed the Bedlam’ for derailing his geography degree,7 and 2001-2 EUTC President Paul Margrave once went so far as to quit Mathematics for Philosophy so as to free up time to direct his first full-length play.8 Safe to say, then, the EUTC represents more than mere entertainment – the Company has become one of Britain’s largest and busiest training grounds for future leaders of the arts industry and beyond. Webster aptly laments that ‘It is sadly impossible to mention all the productions and all the individuals who collectively represent the spirit of Bedlam,’9 but the Company’s ever-vast and diverse membership is embodied at least somewhat by its prolific output down the years.10 By 2000, the Company led most drama colleges and professional repertory companies for volume of stage hours, with 670 productions to its credit over the previous two decades – in other words, it had averaged a staggering 32 plays per annum since moving into Bedlam, most of which went up multiple times.11 Along the way and since, there has been the odd exceptional piece: Toby Gough’s International Student Drama Award-winning Grimm: The Telling of Tales (1992), Linford Cazenove’s Fringe First- winning 1996 adaptation of James Joyce’s Dubliners, and Ella Hickson’s Eight (2008), to name but three.12 Equally, there has been the occasional ‘Pongid’,13 but meditating overmuch on either the 6 Jon Webster, “Drama Society to Theatre Company”, in Edinburgh's Bedlam Theatre, 1st ed., ed. Webster, Jon (Edinburgh: 1991), p.10. 7 Andrew Mulligan, in Friends of Bedlam, Bedlam Testimonials (Video) (2014) [www.youtube.com/watch?v=KOZhRqkbLkI]. 8 Paul Margrave, “Friends of Bedlam”, on Paul Margrave: Blog (2014) [pargrave.wordpress.com/2014/04/07/friends-of-bedlam/]. 9 Webster, “Drama Society to Theatre Company”, p.10. 10 Available archives suggest that between 1979 and 2004, the Company had approximately 250 members in its worst year (2003-4), and approximately 500 (1990-1) in their best. Edinburgh University Theatre Company Archive (hereafter EUTCA), Minutes: Committee meetings (December 4th, 2003). Jon Webster, “More Threads in the Tapestry”, in Edinburgh's Bedlam Theatre, p.35. 11 Friends of Bedlam, “Welcome,” (2013) [friendsofbedlam.co.uk/]. 12 Not only did Eight win a Fringe First, but it was then published, and transferred to Broadway. 13 A term derived from the EUTC’s original show Rise of the Pongids (1985), for which enthusiasm was so muted that director Tom Harwood had to use cardboard cut-outs to represent the places in the cast left unfilled. So ‘awful’ was the production that a ‘decent-sized’ audience had been reduced to just two by the denouement,