2026 Critics’ Awards for Theatre in Scotland shortlists announced

The shortlists for the 2026 Critics’ Awards for Theatre in Scotland which have been released today, Thursday May 7, see What I’m Here For - Vanishing Point and Teater Katapult’s “enthralling brief tone poem of a theatrical piece” (Joyce McMillan, The Scotsman) - and Windblown - Karine Polwart’s “haunting elegy for a felled 200-year-old natural wonder”(Mark Fisher, The Guardian) - top the list with five nominations each.

Production company Raw Material has garnered nine nominations across three different productions: Karine Polwart’s Windblown, Stewart Laing’s Saint Joan (co-produced with Perth Theatre and Aberdeen Performing Arts), and Wallace.Meanwhile, The National Theatre of Scotland (NTS) has seven nominations for shows including: The High Life: The Musical, Alan Cumming, Forbes Masson and Johnny McKnight’s musical version of the classic TV series (co-produced with Dundee Rep in association with Aberdeen Performing Arts and Capital Theatres). The Citizens Theatre has scooped six nominations for productions including three for Waiting for Godot (co-produced with Liverpool Everyman and Playhouse & Octagon Theatre Bolton), which saw George Costigan and Matthew Kelly take on the iconic roles of Vladimir and Estragon.

The eight nominees for the Outstanding Performance awards include Johnny McKnight’s one-man homage to the pantomime dame, She’s Behind You! (co-produced by Traverse Theatre and NTS), and Robert Jack’s villainous Sheriff of Stirling-Stella-Ham in Weans in the Woods (Macrobert Arts Centre, Stirling). Previous winners Jessica Harwdwick (Knives in Hens) and Sandy Grierson (Fergus Lamont, Lanark: A Life in Three Acts and Confessions of a Shinagawa Monkey) are nominated for Jess Brodie’s monodrama GUSH (Traverse Theatre) and Fred Goodwin in Make it Happen(NTS, Dundee Rep Theatre and Edinburgh International Festival) respectively; Sam Stopford receives a nomination for Mephistopheles (Doctor Faustus at Bard in the Botanics) and Mandipa Kabanda is recognised for the title role in Saint Joan (Raw Material with the Citizens Theatre). Lærke Schjærff Engelbrecht (Flora in Vanishing Point and Teater Katapult’s What I’m Here For) becomes the first international performer to be nominated for an Outstanding Performance award and Karine Polwart, winner of the Best Sound and Music award for Wind Resistance in 2016, is nominated for her latest work, Windblown (Raw Material).

The four pieces shortlisted for the Best New Play Award are Milly Sweeney’s Water Colour (Pitlochry Festival Theatre with the Byre Theatre St Andrews), Frances Poet’s Stand & Deliver: The Lee Jeans Sit-in (National Theatre of Scotland with the Tron Theatre,Glasgow); Sean O’Neil’s Fish (A Play A Pie and a Pint) and Karine Polwart’s Windblown (Raw Material). In the frame for the supreme award, Best Production, this year are She’s Behind You!, The High Life: The Musical, Waiting for Godot and Windblown

Announcing the shortlists CATS co-convenor Joyce McMillan said:

“This has been another bumper year for theatre produced in Scotland, with almost 140 productions eligible for the awards including 96 new plays. Greater funding certainty than in recent years, for many companies, has led to a real surge in energy and confidence during the year; and as ever, It is a testament to the creativity, ambition and determination of Scottish theatre makers that we had so many varied and exciting shows to consider, from such a wide range of companies and artists.”

“This year’s shortlists again recognise the importance of internationalism in Scottish theatre,” says CATS co-convenor, Mark Brown. “Following its CATS awards winning co-production of Confessions of a Shinagawa Monkey with Kanagawa Arts Theatre last year, Vanishing Point continues to demonstrate that special things can happen when two innovative companies come together to create a piece of truly international work.

“In the second year of our Outstanding Panto Award our shortlist again illustrates the continuing strength of the genre here in Scotland,” he adds. “Productions were staged right across the country, ranging from glorious, large-scale extravanganzas to brilliant, hand-spun local shows. All of them embody those special qualities that make pantomime such an important part of our cultural landscape.”

We are delighted to be holding our 2026 ceremony in the newly refurbished Citizens Theatre celebrating the return of this vital part of the Scottish Theatre community” adds Joyce McMillan.“It will be an especially poignant event following the death last August of the great Giles Havergal - a giant of Scottish Theatre and part of the great Citizens Theatre triumvirate with Philip Prowse and Robert David MacDonald. Their breathtaking brilliance and ambition still inspires Scotland’s theatre community today; and we are delighted that our CATS Awards ceremony at the Citizens will celebrate the achievements this year of a Scottish theatre scene that would be much poorer and less ambitious without that great and thrilling legacy.”

The 2026 Critics’ Awards for Theatre in Scotland are generously supported by:

Theatre Studies at the University of Glasgow(Outstanding Performance awards), Equity (Best Ensemble), BECTU (Best Technical Presentation), Nick Hern Books (Best New Play), BB Hair Collective (Best Design), Gilded Balloon (Best Production for Children and Young People).