Winners & Nominees for the CATS Awards 2025

Celebrating Extraordinary Achievements

The 2025 CATS Awards were held at the Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh on Sunday June 8. Special guest presenter was Panto superstar Johnny McKnight.

Here are the nominees and winners of the Critics’ Awards for Theatre in Scotland 2025.

Outstanding Pantomime

A Christmas Carol

The Brunton and Wonder Fools

Image © Mihaela Bodlovic

Mother Goose

Gaiety Theatre, Ayr

Image © Tommy Ga-Ken Wan

"Writers Ken Alexander and Fraser Boyle took Mother Goose – one of the oldest, least structured and often least successful panto plots – for their sixth collaboration. They wove into it something quite extraordinary and modern. This thrummed with all sorts of energies, such as character depth, that are not always associated with pantomime, but which the pair made fit perfectly.

This was a panto packed with local references, that oozed love and laughter, and which eschewed a shoe-horned wedding to bring a message of hope and reconciliation at the finale. Above all, however, this was a panto which dared. Dared to bring in big topical political comedy, dared to acknowledge societal concerns, dared to name-check the venue’s panto greats over the years, dared to have Deaf characters in the cast and company using the fact to up the physicality for everyone to see.”

- Thom Dibdin, All Edinburgh Theatre

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Outstanding Performance

Two Winners

Charlene Boyd

June Carter Cash: The Woman, Her Music and Me.
National Theatre of Scotland and Grid Iron Theatre

Image © Sally Jubb

Kirsty Findlay

Beautiful: The Carole King Musical
Pitlochry Festival Theatre

Image © Fraser Band

"From the first moment Kirsty Findlay sat at the piano as Carole King, she embodied the legendary singer songwriter with a depth and maturity that was riveting to watch. Singing and playing piano on King’s classic set of songs in Sam Hardie’s production of Douglas McGrath’s musical, vocally and musically, Findlay went way beyond jukebox musical tribute to capture King’s essence with verve and panache. Findlay made every song her own in a gloriously celebratory portrait of an artist who, by finding her own voice, inspired the generations of women who followed in her wake.”

- Neil Cooper (The Herald)

Sandy Grierson

Confessions Of A Shinigawa Monkey
Vanishing Point Theatre Company and Kanagawa Arts Theatre in association with Tramway

Image © Mihaela Bodlovic

“Sandy Grierson was an extraordinary monkey, matter of fact and believable while undeniably an animal. His physicality was entirely convincing and, working with a skilled puppeteer, his tail added an extra layer of nuance to an already astounding performance. This was something very special.”

- Anna Burnside, Corr Blimey!/Across the Arts

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Best Ensemble

Confessions of a Shinagawa Monkey

Vanishing Point and Kanagawa Arts Theatre in association with Tramway

Image © Mihaela Bodlovic

“This production was a complex and enthralling ensemble piece. It brought together a universally fantastic cast of actors from Japan and the UK – including such wonderful performers as Yuya Tanaka from the Kanagawa Arts Theatre and longstanding Vanishing Point collaborator Alicia Daley and not forgetting expert puppeteer Ailie Cohen, who was ever present as the characteristically swishing tail of the monkey. A play that asks – among many other things – what makes us human, and how we do, and sometimes do not, manage to exist in modern societies, the piece required great empathy and skill of actors who spoke in Japanese, and responded in English, and vice versa. A truly remarkable production, delivered by a deeply impressive ensemble.”

- Mark Brown, Sunday National/Daily Telegraph

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Best Director

Gordon Barr

Hedda Gabler
Bard in the Botanics

Image © Tommy Ga-Ken Wan

Andrew Panton

A History of Paper
Dundee Rep Theatre and Traverse Theatre

Image © Tommy Ga-Ken Wan

“Andrew Panton’s direction of A History of Paper by Oliver Emanuel and Gareth Williams was impeccably considered, uncluttered, fluid and paced to perfection. The result was a production of rare depth, where everything was necessary and everything had emotional clarity and resonance.”

- Hugh Simpson, All Edinburgh Theatre

Best Design

Confessions of a Shinagawa Monkey

Kei Ishihara/BlankRD (scenography), Simon Wilkinson (lighting), Sacico Ito/Brucke (costumes), Eri Akamatsu/Esper (hair, wigs and make up); Ailie Cohen (puppet design and making)
Vanishing Point and Kanagawa Arts Theatre in association with Tramway

Image © Mihaela Bodlovic

“Confessions of a Shinigawa Monkey’s aesthetic was mesmerising from the start. Everything from the design aspect of this brilliant production amazed and thrilled: it was beautiful and poetic to behold, and every scene found a new way to astound the audience with another bold choice. Any one scene would have been enough to secure its nomination, but in total Confessions proved itself to be an unforgettable tapestry of designed delights.”

- Michael Cox, Across the Arts

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Best Music & Sound

A History of Paper

Gareth Williams (original music), Oliver Emanuel (lyrics), Gavin Whitworth (musical direction), Ritchie Young (sound design) and Facundo Mato (sound no.1)
Dundee Rep Theatre and Traverse Theatre

Image © Tommy Ga-Ken Wan

Wild Rose

Sarah Travis and Davey Anderson (music supervision, orchestration and arrangements), Tony Gayle (sound design)
The Royal Lyceum Edinburgh, Caledonia Productions and Gavin Kalin

Image © Mihaela Bodlovic

"Sarah Travis and Davey Anderson’s music supervision, orchestration and arrangements, and Tony Gayle’s sound design, distinguished Wild Rose. The Royal Lyceum, Caledonia Productions and Gavin Kalin’s production featured a live band who supplied the excitement and visceral quality of live music, something that theatre doesn’t always achieve. The more emotional moments of the story, moreover, were heightened by carefully chosen and beautifully performed songs."

- Hugh Simpson, All Edinburgh Theatre

Best Technical Presentation

Beautiful: The Carole King Musical

Pitlochry Festival Theatre

Image © Fraser Band

Confessions of a Shinagawa Monkey

Vanishing Point and Kanagawa Arts Theatre in association with Tramway

Image © Mihaela Bodlovic

“The extraordinary design of Confessions of a Shinagawa Monkey relied very heavily upon devilishly complex technical work. In one scene the action unfolds at the front of the stage while we, the audience, are oblivious to the fact that an entire new set – a kitchen in a city apartment, no less – is being put in place right behind the actors on stage. We have seen Vanishing Point pull off some technical feats with lighting before, but never, I think, quite like this. Thanks to the production’s immense technical capacities, scenes didn’t so much change as emerge one from the other. And if props or pieces of set had to be removed within the sight of the audience, even that was done theatrically, by fast-paced, furtive, hooded figures who might have sprung from the sewers of Tokyo. It was, in technical terms, nothing short of breathtaking.”

- Mark Brown, The Sunday National/Daily Telegraph

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Best Production for Children and Young People

So Far So Good

The Yellow Canary

Glass Performance

Image © Glass Performance

“Performed by Tashi Gore, who co-creates the show with playwright Will Gore and director Jess Thorpe, The Yellow Canary paints itself around the life of Bernard (Tashi’s grandmother’s cousin) by way of his Jewish family, and his yellow canary, which he carries with him while fleeing Nazi occupation of Paris.
A monumentally commanding piece, but one which imparts its weight with a gentility that weaves educational history with charming elements of Jewish musical tradition and vivid animation, Glass Performance’s The Yellow Canary is a more than deserving winner for the Outstanding Production for Children and Young People – its chittering voice carrying it over barriers and experiences to illuminate as much of the world around us, as it does the not-so-distant past; spreading its wings, carrying its song to those even outside of theatrical space.”

- Dominic Corr, Corr Blimey!

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Best New Play

Charlene Boyd

Douglas Maxwell

So Young
Traverse Theatre, Raw Material and Citizens Theatre

Image © Aly Wight

“So Young is the type of play that becomes more impressive the longer you think about it. Douglas Maxwell’s play covers numerous themes that could have been shallow but instead prove rich—and almost always unpredictable. You’re sure you know where it’s going within five minutes—and you’re completely wrong. Funny and humane, So Young is a standout play from a standout playwright.”

- Michael Cox, Across the Arts

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Best Production

Confessions of a Shinagawa Monkey

Hedda Gabler

Bard in the Botanics

Image © Tommy Ga-Ken Wan

“Last year, Gordon Barr celebrated his 20th anniversary as artistic director of Glasgow's remarkable Bard In The Botanics season, which has been presenting Shakespeare in the gardens for almost 25 years now, and developing a company whose skills have been honed by sustained work on some of the world’s greatest dramatic texts. In recent years, the company have extended their work beyond Shakespeare to embrace other mighty writers and stories; and none greater than Henrik Ibsen.

Last year, they presented his huge and haunting 1891 tragedy Hedda Gabler in the perfect surroundings of the Kibble Palace, in a thrilling new version by Kathy McKean, and in a production by Gordon Barr that fairly took the breath away with its pace and intensity; creating an unforgettable sense of shock at the depths of Hedda’s despair, as the prison walls of a repressive society close around her, and at the tragic destruction she will unleash, as she takes a final revenge.”

- Joyce McMillan, The Scotsman