Brighton gets a showing of a one-woman play that “weaves together memory, humour and intergenerational storytelling in a deeply tender exploration of cultural legacy and survival.”

After three award-winning seasons at the Melbourne, Adelaide and Edinburgh Fringes, NIUSIA now plays the Brighton Fringe from Sunday, May 3-Thursday, May 7 at The Lantern Theatre.

Spokeswoman Phoebe Carlisle said: “The production tells the story of a Holocaust survivor through the voice of her granddaughter, Beth. Beth sets out to piece together the past of her grandmother Niusia, a woman shaped by a history she rarely spoke about.

“But as she digs beneath the memories, she finds something far more complex: an unravelling of inheritance, silence, and the unanswerable questions that echo across generations. With heart and sharp Jewish humour, Beth confronts not just her Nana’s legacy, but her own.

“Drawing on fragments of memory, inherited stories and interviews, The Scotsman Fringe First winner NIUSIA explores the fragility of identity and the unpredictable cultural legacy passed down through second, third and fourth generations. Audiences will journey with Beth as she is shown the tenderness she missed out on, learns to laugh at the unlaughable and wades through the intricacies of memories, intergenerational trauma, love and familial relationships.

“Performed by Beth Paterson (The Pirates of Penzance, BK Opera; The Black Rider, Malthouse Theatre), she gives voice to the cruel thoughts you shouldn't have about your Holocaust-surviving nana, stumbles upon her own Jewishness and confronts how deeply embedded these horrific memories are in her family line. Award-winning director and co-collaborator Kat Yates will join her, alongside producer Ryan Stewart.

“Now, more than 80 years on from the Holocaust, NIUSIA turns toward the urgent question of what remains when those who lived through it are almost gone. As living memory fades, the work asks what responsibility falls to the generations that follow and how we carry stories that are incomplete while ensuring their meaning is not lost. With conflict and displacement continuing to shape millions of lives across the globe, NIUSIA places one family’s history within a wider human story, offering a reflection on survival, inheritance and purpose. It is both an act of remembrance and a call to listen, inviting audiences to consider not only what we remember, but why we must.”

Director Kat Yates said the starting place of NIUSIA was “not knowing.”

“Beth and I were inspired by how much Beth did and didn’t know about her family and identity and how common this experience was for many children of immigrants. In this show, Beth does not leave the stage and all discoveries that she makes come from the set, pulling out books that were buried in boxes to tell stories she didn’t know she could share. We were inspired to stage a show that highlighted complex family histories.”