I met Ava Ausman, Bedlam’s set manager, and Alex Kerr Foreman, Bedlam’s set deputy manager, for this interview, unaware of what I may learn. To me, and likely many others, the tech and set side of theatre production is largely unknown territory. I’m lucky enough to get a tour of Bedlam theatre, where I’m invited into the high-ceilinged spire decorated with power tools and screws and trifoliums taken over by costumes and props. Everything about the building is lived in and well-loved.
We sit down in the Bedlam café, and I ask the annoying question of: what do you actually do? The answer is anything that needs to be done. Their team handle building, painting, set dressing, installing sets, risk assessments, and, in the case of Metamorphoses (2026), putting a swimming pool into the stage. When asked how they got into all this, Alex simply said “I came here during Freshers and never left” and this just-go-with-it approach is integral to the role. It is an almost ancient way of learning “you watch people do it and you go, ‘oh I could probably do that,'” says Alex.
Get-ins — the weekends before a show when the set is put up — are surprisingly of little stress to Ava and Alex. As Ava tells me, the cardinal rule of set is “you build it day one and fix it day two.” The set team try to make as much as possible before get-ins, however that’s not to say that it’s not hard work.” If you’re doing the get-in I hope you didn’t plan to do anything else that weekend ” jokes Ava, “you work hard and you will be a bit tired afterwards, but you have a lovely time.”
I am highly curious about the possible differences in ideas between directors and set designers, and how that collaboration works. Ava explains that a designer’s job is making a director’s vision come to life, to be the realist to their romantic, as “they might have an idea that’s just going to look ugly.” When the set team has creative freedom, Alex uses the extensive Bedlam online archives for inspiration, drawing from the legacy of the company. Any theatre company in Edinburgh must consider its placement in a city so renowned for performing arts, and Bedlam is clearly dedicated to its own history. Even the collage of posters covering the room we are in carries the fond legacy to those who have come before them, and the shows that Ava and Alex work on will be similarly immortalised, as Ava says “we have no choice: we are in the history.”
Equally intrinsic to Bedlam’s identity is the fact that its venue is a church. “We enjoy that,” says Alex, with Ava telling me that the most common question they get asked at box office is whether there’s a service on. The pews and organ still live in the theatre with this second life — according to the theatre’s general approach to resourcefulness. The set team repaint flats until they can be painted no more, and if anything breaks “you should know how to fix it” says Alex. This environmental awareness comes naturally, as Ava tells me “we’re extremely green because we don’t have enough money not to be.”
We get onto the subject of reviews, though as set managers, Ava and Alex’s work is often unsung — “if it’s bad they will mention you for it, if it’s good they won’t mention it. I don’t think we get our satisfaction from the audience,” and that fact is apparent. The one thing that is most evident from our conversation, is just how underappreciated Ava and Alex’s work is.
There is a deep sense of community in Bedlam, and an inability to keep away, with Alex telling me how he used a day off to make dinner for all those still working. This community transcends the current team, as the Bedlam alumni programme is strong, providing part of the team’s budget and occasionally meeting for a drink. Despite their degrees being unrelated to tech, Ava and Alex tell me how they endeavour to use the experience in their future and how this volunteer work may flourish into careers in the industry. Ava tells me “people come into this building as academics and leave as genuine theatre techs.”
As the interview comes to a close, and I can pry no further, I ask if there’s anything they would like to share with the readers, to which they reply “tell them we’re looking for set assistants.” If you want to learn valuable skills, be part of a delightful community and heritage, and you don’t like having your weekends free, then I would recommend.
“Bedlam Theatre, 11 Bristo Pl, Edinburgh” by Dancewear Central is licensed under CC BY 2.0
