After a sell-out development season at La Mama Theatre and two further award-winning runs at Melbourne Fringe (2023) and Adelaide Fringe (2025), NIUSIA makes its international debut at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2025.
Niusia was a Holocaust survivor—charming, savvy, and, according to her granddaughter Beth, a pretty mean lady. Now, Beth is ready to uncover who Niusia really was. Through memories, handed-down stories, and interviews, Beth explores the precariousness of identity and the tangled cultural legacy passed down through generations of immigrants. The show asks: “What does remembrance look like when all I remember is the space where questions should go?”
Beth gives voice to the unspeakable thoughts about her Holocaust-surviving nana, stumbles upon her own Jewish identity, and confronts the deep-rooted trauma in her family line. NIUSIA is a journey through complex memories, intergenerational trauma, love, and familial relationships. It’s also a celebration of culture and family—of weekly visits, rituals, and those odd family lunches that are resented in the moment but missed in hindsight.
In 2025, 80 years after the liberation of Auschwitz, with few survivors left, NIUSIA reflects on how we tell these stories now, what they mean, and how they can be shared. While rooted in Holocaust survival, the work resonates with anyone whose family has endured conflict or displacement—an experience shared by over 120 million people globally as of 2024.
Director Kat Yates explains that the show began with “not knowing.” Beth remains on stage throughout, uncovering stories from books buried in boxes. The production embraces the complexity of family histories and challenges cancel culture, showing that conflicting truths can coexist: a grandmother can be both a heroic survivor and deeply flawed.
