Bath's theatre society/family. We run fun weekly informal workshops, put on many performances throughout the year (including at Bath Fringe Festival), and have plenty of funky socials.
Our 2025/26 Productions
BUST Semester 1 Shows
Hamlet
Returner's Show: 2nd - 4th October 2025, The Weston Studio (The Edge)
The king is dead, the queen remarried and the prince still mourns his father. When Prince Hamlet learns of the treacherous way in which his father died, he seeks retribution. But is there a way it can be carried out that does not leave him feeling as guilty as the offender? As Hamlet faces this moral dilemma, he scorns love and makes enemies of those that were once his friends, leading some to seek revenge on him. Does this cycle end? Are there ever winners when it comes to vengeance or only survivors?
Dying to Marry You
Freshers Show: 20th - 22nd November 2025, The Weston Studio (The Edge)
One person’s proposal is another’s murder...
‘Dying to marry you’ is a student-written play by Bethany Hine set in modern times in the rather posh and “gothic” house of Ruth Lovelace. It is a comedy inspired by her love of Oscar Wilde movie adaptations, exaggerated and modernised into this farce of sarcasm and miscommunication.
The play follows a group of students holidaying together during the Summer before their final year at university. It centres around Peter as he attempts to propose to his girlfriend Ruth, yet through a series of misunderstandings she becomes convinced that he is instead plotting to kill her. In the chaos of rings, guns and a lot of miscommunication, will the couple find themselves wed or dead?
The Wizard of Oz: The Panto
Christmas Show: 11th - 13th December 2025, The Edge Theatre
Your classic Wizard of Oz but with a few panto twists! Dorothy leaves her life and her love (oooOOOoo) behind when a tornado hits Kansas. She lands in Oz where she meets a whole host of colourful panto-y characters including: a very drunk wizard, munchkin henchmen, a dame-ified Glinda and the Wicked Witch of the West! We follow Dorothy through Oz as she attempts to make sense of the shenanigans and to get back home despite the Witch’s attempts to foil her plans.
Other Productions
School Show - Room on the Broom
This small but super fun show is going to be performed at a local primary school.
Semester 2 Shows
24 Hour Show
Ever wanted to sleep over in a theatre? Well now is your chance with this chaotic, improv-ed show! We enter the Weston Studio at 7pm on Friday 6th February and somehow 24 hours later, a short play will be performed at 7pm on Saturday 7th February! It's a tonne of fun and super low stakes, with a chance to try out acting, directing or producing. All money raised from tickets sold goes to a charity of our choice.
Blue Stockings
Town Show: 26th February - 28th February, The Mission Theatre
1896, Girton College, Cambridge; the first college in Britain to admit women. The Girton girls study ferociously and match their male peers grade for grade yet go home empty handed. Tess Moffat and her fellow first years are determined to win the right to graduate. But little do they anticipate the hurdles in their way: the distractions of love, the cruelty of the class divide or the strength of the opposition. Blue Stockings is a comedic, impactful, and emotional play which follows the girls over the course of a tumultuous academic year, in their fight to change the future of education for girls and women.
Tickets Now on Sale: https://www.trybooking.com/uk/FZLT
Dead Dog in a Suitcase (And Other Love Songs)
March Show: 19th March - 20th March, The Weston Studio
“What the HELL is the world coming to”
MAYOR GOODMAN IS DEAD. Contract killer Macheath, fresh off a tough day at work has just married Polly Peachum, and they can’t wait to escape to somewhere better... but they’re not going anywhere. Not if the Pilchard Tycoons Mr and Mrs Peachum have their way. See their daughter marrying the Mayor’s killer doesn’t look great for Mr Peachum’s Mayoral campaign, and with Chief of Police Colin Lockit going mad trying to find him, could it get any more chaotic? Before the day is out Macheath will face the hangman’s noose, some unintentional offspring, a battle with morality and the nasty end of a revolver. All in this madcap show filled with music, puppets and madness.
Bath Fringe
After exams have ended in May, BUST put on three plays in just a week! Comprised of three different casts and only a week for rehearsals, this busy but fun filled week is the perfect end to a year of wonderful theatre.
In The Mission Theatre:
The Macino Affair
By Bethany Hine and Joe Marriage
19:30 on Friday 5th and 14:30 on Saturday 6th June
Every person, a witness, a storyteller, and a suspect…
Mancino’s Italian restaurant is a place of perfect organisation and professional elegance. Usually. But when the evening’s guest of honour has their prize bracelet stolen, order is threatened by chaos. Everyone at the scene of the crime has a story to tell, and no one is beyond suspicion.
‘The Mancino Affair’ is a light-hearted comedy, in which the audience is invited to relive the events leading to the crime, one witness at a time. As the familiar reveals the unexpected, can the thief be pushed into the spotlight? Or is there really such a thing as a perfect crime?
Tickets now on sale: https://www.trybooking.com/uk/events/landing/114213?embed
Dr Frank
By Elz Rainbow
14:30 on Friday 5th and 19:30 on Saturday 6th June
Inspired by Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, this play brings her characters to the modern day.
Elizabeth has recently started working for the charming and debonair Dr Frank. When the mysterious Justine appears, everything Elizabeth thought she knew about “the good doctor” begins to unravel. Meanwhile, Dr Frank stumbles upon a miracle - the woman of his dreams made flesh. As the two get closer, Dr Frank begins to realise this woman may not be the perfect creature he designed.
As Elizabeth and Justine uncover the truth about Dr Frank’s past, the danger they are in becomes all too clear.
In a world of imbalance and hubris, creation and destruction, the question at the core of Shelley’s book remains: who is really in control?
Tickets now on sale: https://www.trybooking.com/uk/events/landing/114228?embed
In The Weston Studio:
The Duke of Tolomlay
By Oscar James
19:30 on Friday 5th and Saturday 6th June
The Duke of Tolomlay is a play inspired by the wacky world of aristocrats and tradition especially as it became further disillusioned from wider society in the 18th century. The play explores why such a model seems to be so self-sustaining and which cracks begin to appear in its seemingly pristine environment. Fundamentally it is a story about authoritarian power and the perpetuation of the lifestyle surrounding it. The play follows a farmer whose people are sick & in need of a saviour. So, when they attempt to beseech the aide of the duke, the self-entitled aristocracy threatens to thwart their mission. Through twists and turns galore, the farmer slowly uncovers the truth behind the charade, culminating in an unexpected confrontation.
Keep an eye out for tickets! Email su-bust@bath.ac.uk if you have any questions.