NIUSIA Fringe First Award

After its European premiere at Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2025, Beth Paterson’s NIUSIA has won a Scotsman Fringe First Award. Weaving together memories, handed-down stories and interviews to reframe a perception of someone, Beth gives voice to the cruel thoughts you shouldn't have about your Holocaust-surviving nana, Niusia. 

Offering a poignant autobiographical journey through generations, Beth Paterson’s show confronts the deeply embedded horrific memories within her family line and how she reconnected with her own Jewishness. Ready to learn and unpick her family history, NIUSIA traverses the identity lines to reveal who Paterson’s grandmother really was.

While NIUSIA centres around being the granddaughter of a survivor of the Holocaust, this production is for anyone whose family has survived. Presenting a beautiful celebration of culture and family, from weekly visits to the rituals and the unsettling family lunches you resent but then miss, Paterson learns to laugh at the unlaughable and wades through the intricacies of complex memories and intergenerational trauma.

Writer and performer Beth Paterson comments, The NIUSIA team feel incredibly honoured to be selected for such a prestigious award. NIUSIA is driven by a small, hardworking team of independent Aussie artists, and to have our work recognised alongside such a remarkable lineup of alumni by such an iconic and monumental institution has utterly floored us. At its heart NIUSIA is strongly anti-war, and offers a message of compassion, pride, and accountability. The chance to platform this work now feels more important than ever.

NIUSIA continues its run of award-winning acclaim at Summerhall Edinburgh, until 25^th August, following a sell-out development season at La Mama Theatre and two award-winning seasons at Melbourne Fringe (2023) and Adelaide Fringe (2025).