After its European premiere at Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2025, Beth Paterson’sNIUSIAhas 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,NIUSIAtraverses the identity lines to reveal who Paterson’s grandmother really was.
The Scotsman’s globally renowned Fringe First awards have been recognising outstanding new writing premiered at Edinburgh Festival Fringe since 1973.
Joyce McMillan at The Scotsman says,Beth Paterson is a superbly poised and engaging performer, always sharply focussed on the story, and letting her own emotions emerge from the narrative, on a tide of sharp intelligence and humour. And by the end, she seems almost to blaze with pride in her inheritance, as part of this line of mighty female survivors; not because she doesn’t understand the tragedies violent displacement currently shaking our world, but precisely because she does understand the human meaning of those crises, more clearly than ever before.
WhileNIUSIAcentres 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, Patersonlearns to laugh at the unlaughable and wades through the intricacies of complex memories and intergenerational trauma.
Writer and performer Beth Paterson comments,TheNIUSIAteam feel incredibly honoured to be selected for such a prestigious award.NIUSIAis 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 heartNIUSIAis strongly anti-war, and offers a message of compassion, pride, and accountability. The chance to platform this work now feels more important than ever.
NIUSIAcontinues its run of award-winning acclaim following a sell-out development season at La Mama Theatre and two award-winning seasons at Melbourne Fringe (2023) and Adelaide Fringe(2025).
Main Image: Photo by Ece Mustafoff
This post was last modified on August 21, 2025 8:53 am