The 2026 Critics’ Awards for Theatre in Scotland offered a vivid snapshot of a national theatre scene in remarkable health, celebrating a year in which Scottish stages delivered work of striking breadth, ambition and emotional force. Presented by Gavin Mitchell at Glasgow’s newly refurbished Citizens Theatre, the awards recognised no fewer than 10 different productions across 10 categories, underlining what co-convenor Joyce McMillan described as “a bumper year” for Scottish theatre, one defined by “productions ranging from large-scale extravaganzas to single performer productions, from works rooted in their locality to major international co-productions, from pieces by long-established performers and creators to works by a new generation of talent.” As McMillan noted, “The standard of work created across the year has been particularly impressive, and this is reflected in the spread of the 11 awards over 10 different winning shows.”
Among the standout winners, Karine Polwart and Raw Material’s Windblown claimed Best Production as well as Best Use of Music and Sound, marking the piece as one of the defining Scottish works of the year. McMillan hailed it as “a perfect cameo of what Scottish theatre in the 2020s can achieve, at its magnificent best,” adding that it “richly deserves its place in this year’s CATS Awards as Scotland’s Best Production of the Year.” Inspired by the story of the Sabal palm that stood for more than two centuries in Edinburgh’s Royal Botanic Garden, Windblown was further praised as “a haunting elegy for a felled 200-year-old natural wonder.”
Performance was another area in which the awards reflected the range and richness of Scottish theatre-making. Jessica Hardwick picked up her second Outstanding Performance award, this time for Gush, a solo work described as “a bold solo play exploring desire, identity and motherhood,” while Johnny McKnight was also honoured in the same category for She’s Behind You!, his acclaimed exploration of the changing world of the pantomime Dame. The High Life: The Musical scooped Best Ensemble, with its cast including original stars Alan Cumming, Forbes Masson, Siobhán Redmond and Patrick Ryecart, while Milly Sweeney’s Water Colour won Best New Play, recognised as “an elegantly structured and emotionally authentic portrait of depression and connection among young people,” made all the more notable by the fact that it is Sweeney’s debut work.
The ceremony also marked a major milestone for Dominic Hill, who received a record-breaking sixth Best Director award for Waiting for Godot. In the words of the awards organisers, Hill has “established himself as force in Scottish Theatre, firstly at Dundee Rep, then at the Traverse Theatre, and, since 2011, at the Citz,” with “the consistently high quality of his work” reflected in this latest honour for the Citizens Theatre’s staging of Beckett’s classic. Elsewhere, awards went to Beauty and the Beast for Best Production for Children and Young People, The Snow Queen for Outstanding Pantomime, Mai Katsume and Simon Wilkinson for Best Design for What I’m Here For, and Shotput Theatre’s Arlington for Best Technical.
For the Citizens Theatre itself, the event carried an added resonance. As co-convenor Mark Brown observed, “This has been an important year for the Citizens Theatre. We looked back on the legacy of the great Giles Havergal and celebrated the future of this vital part of Scotland’s theatre landscape in its newly – and gloriously – refurbished building.” Presented by Gavin Mitchell, whose own history with the venue stretches back to the 1980s, the 2026 CATS awards became more than a roll call of winners: they stood as a celebration of a theatre culture that continues to evolve, nurture new voices, honour established talent, and produce work of real distinction.
Outstanding Performance (Supported by Theatre Studies at the University of Glasgow):
Traverse Theatre. Development also supported by Playwrights Studio Scotland
“Jessica Hardwick has been missed from Scotland’s stages over the last couple of years as she has focused on TV work. Her return in Jess Brodie’s debut professional play, Gush, saw her fly solo in a performance of intelligence, subtlety and nuance. As Ally, a young middle-class mum to be whose sexual urges see her embark on a dangerous but liberating liaison in a Cambuslang hotel, Hardwick tapped into Ally’s desires with wit and wonder. The result was a performance in which Hardwick proved herself once more as one of the great Scottish actresses of her generation.” (Neil Cooper, The Herald)
Johnny McKnight for She’s Behind You!
Commissioned by the National Theatre of Scotland and Traverse Theatre. Produced by the Traverse Theatre in association with the National Theatre of Scotland.
“Johnny McKnight has, for years, been a pioneer of a form of pantomime that has been both traditional and trailblazing. In the performance lecture She’s Behind You! he set himself the daunting task of reflecting on his own adventures in panto (as writer, director and performer) while also engaging in a deeply thoughtful analysis of the politics of contemporary pantomime.
Costumed as one of his great panto creations – uber dame Dorothy Blawna-Gale – and directed expertly by John Tiffany, McKnight segued compellingly between Dorothy and himself. It was a stunning performance of a highly original piece of theatre that was, by turns, politically charged, very funny and deeply moving.” (Arusa Qureshi, The Stage)
Best Ensemble (Supported by Equity)
National Theatre of Scotland and Dundee Rep in association with Aberdeen Performing Arts and Capital Theatres
“When you have actors of the calibre of Siobhán Redmond, Patrick Ryecart, Forbes Masson and Alan Cumming, you know you’re in safe hands. But to quote from the show, they were the ‘legacy cast]. And one of the many joys of Andrew Panton’s musical revival of the TV sitcom was in the way every single actor in the large ensemble gave their all. In the songs, in the dance routines and in the general daftness, the exuberance on stage was infectious.” (Mark Fisher, The Guardian)
Best Director:
Dominic Hill for Waiting for Godot
Citizens Theatre, Liverpool Everyman and Playhouse and Octagon Theatre Bolton
“Drawing productively on the friendship – not only between the play’s cerebral tramps Vladimir and Estragon – but also between his lead actors George Costigan and Matthew Kelly, Dominic Hill crafted an appropriately intelligent, warm, humorous and humane production of Beckett’s magnum opus.
Hill’s conception of the despotic Pozzo and the enslaved Lucky was – like the production as a whole – strikingly fresh and vital. This brilliant Godot testified to the fact that – in his leadership of Glasgow’s great repertory theatre – Dominic Hill is very much in his natural habitat.” (Mark Brown, Sunday National, Daily Telegraph & Plays International)
Best Design (supported by BB Hair Collective):
Mai Katsume (set and costume), Simon Wilkinson (lighting) for What I’m Here For
Vanishing Point and Katapult Teater
“Mai Katsume and Simon Wilkinson’s designs take the caring environment of a hospital and turn it into something dark and threatening while at the same time managing to be mysteriously colourful, playing into all of the audience’s insecurities while heightening the dramatic tension of the play and making the struggles of the central character all the more gripping”. (Simon Thomson, What’s On Stage)
Best Use of Sound and Music:
Karine Polwart, Pippa Murphy and Dave Milligan for Windblown
Raw Material
“The music here carried much of the narrative of loss, love, nature and connectedness. It was distinguished not only by Polwart’s measured, melancholic, almost absurdly open-hearted performance, but also by the intense emotion and fierce intelligence she and co-composer Pippa Murphy brought to an exquisite and haunting suite of songs. Murphy’s beautifully-judged sound design was another integral part of the production’s profound effect, as was Dave Milligan’s sensitive and wonderful piano accompaniment.” (Hugh Simpson All Edinburgh Theatre)
Best Technical (Supported by BECTU):
“The great Irish dramatist Enda Walsh’s Arlington – in which we encounter an absurdist, high-rise dystopia set in frighteningly near future – presents theatre-makers with a series of technical challenges. These range from the bleakly hilarious Orwell-meets-the-Keystone-Cops surveillance technology of the repressive state to the regime’s hidden delivery methods for sustenance and ridiculous quantities of inexplicable attire that seem to come from a sinister dressing up box. Shotput’s flawless production met these challenges and more with precision and style.” (Mark Brown, Sunday National, Daily Telegraph & Plays International)
Outstanding Pantomime:
The Snow Queen for Perth Theatre
“A glittering triumph of style and heart, The Snow Queen dazzles with Lauren Ellis-Steele’s ice-cool command, Becky Minto’s sumptuous design and a visual world that shimmers with craft. Beneath the sparkle sits a clear-eyed story of friendship, emphasising the need for non-romantic relationships and takes influencer culture to task. Carried by a terrific ensemble – under Barrie Hunter’s sure-footed direction and dameship – this is festive, funny and beautifully made. It’s a panto that proves spectacle means more when the heart is just as bright.” (Dominic Corr, Corr Blimey and The List)
Best Production for Children and Young People (Supported by The Guilded Balloon):
Citizens Theatre for Beauty and the Beast
“Beauty and the Beast was a deeply Citz production, cleverly retuned for a family audience. The first brilliant idea in Lewis Hetherington’s resolutely Disney-free script was to reframe the story through two pet narrators. He added in a feisty inventor and an absolutely bonkers bad fairy who combined elements of goth, opera diva and Mrs Overall. Overall the show got the balance between high and low elements just right, to the delight of audience members of all ages.” (Anna Burnside, Across The Arts
Best New Play:
Milly Sweeney for Water Colour
““This two-hander, the winner of the St Andrews Playwriting Prize in 2024, followed two likeable but lost 20-somethings – one an art student called Esme, one an aspiring chef called Harris – as they pinballed around Glasgow, their stories hinging on their one fateful nighttime meeting on a bridge over the Clyde. It was an elegantly structured and emotionally authentic portrait of depression and connection among young people – and it was all the more impressive considering it was Sweeney’s debut. Please could someone bring it to a Glasgow audience.” (Fergus Morgan, The Stage)”
Best Production:
Karine Polwart, Raw Material for Windblown
“Created by singer, writer and composer Karine Polwart with a magnificent team, Windblown is a truly exquisite show for our time about the life of the huge Sabal palm tree that, until 2021, stood in the tropical plant house of the Botanic Gardens in Edinburgh. The show blends song, narrative, musical accompaniment and powerful design into an hour-long meditation that, in that short space, touches on so many of the great themes that confront us in the 2020s – from colonialism and its legacy, to migration, climate change, and our ways of dealing with grief and loss – while never losing its powerful humanity, or its sense of joy and wonder at the sheer magnificence of the natural world. Instantly loved by almost everyone who saw it – either on last year’s Edinburgh Fringe, or later as it toured venues across Scotland – Windblown offers a perfect cameo of what Scottish theatre in the 2020s can achieve, at its magnificent best; and it richly deserves its place in this year’s CATS Awards as Scotland’s Best Production of the Year.” (Joyce McMillan, The Scotsman)
