NIUSIA
Edinburgh Festival Fringe
★★★
“The subject matter is urgent, and the personal lens has real potential”
Beth Paterson’s one-woman autobiographical show Niusia is built from fragments: family memories, inherited stories, and Holocaust history. It centres on her grandmother, Niusia, a Holocaust survivor who was, in Beth’s words, both heroic and “a b*tch.” The material holds undeniable weight. We learn that Niusia was born in Warsaw, later moved to Australia, and survived in part through her medical training, which led her to work under Nazi physician Josef Mengele. Alongside this history runs Beth’s complicated relationship with her own Jewishness, emphasising the “ish” in “Jewish,” and her memories of Saturday morning visits to her grandmother.
The form is collage-like. Moments about Jewish identity sit beside sections on Nazi atrocities and observations on intergenerational trauma. In theory, this fragmented structure could mirror the challenge of piecing together a family history when the person at its centre is no longer here to tell it. In practice, the show struggles to find a framework that can hold these pieces together. Without a clear through-line, it becomes difficult to track where we are in the journey or why each section arrives when it does.
Much of the delivery is heavily scripted and polished, which creates a distance between performer and audience. In a piece about discovery and memory, it can be powerful to feel as though the performer is working things out in real time, even if they are not. Here, Beth often appears to already know all the answers, which makes the storytelling feel more like a lecture than a shared experience. For a show that seems to promise a journey of learning, there is little sense of surprise or genuine exploration.
Some of the contradictions in the text are intriguing but not fully resolved. Early on, Beth claims to know very little about Judaism, yet throughout she uses Jewish terminology and makes cultural references that suggest a deeper familiarity. This could be an interesting tension to explore, but as it stands it comes across as inconsistent rather than intentional.
That said, there are moments of connection. The idea of a survivor who rejected spirituality, who was angry with both God and her faith, is compelling and could be a powerful anchor for the show. The honesty in calling her grandmother “a b*tch” sits alongside love and respect in a way that avoids easy sentimentality. And the collage form, if more clearly framed, could reflect the messy process of cultural inheritance: the odd blend of trauma, affection, ritual, and the gaps where questions have gone unasked.
As it stands, Niusia feels caught between forms. A clearer sense of Beth’s perspective, a more deliberate structure, and more space for discovery in the performance could help the audience engage with both the history and the person telling it. The subject matter is urgent, and the personal lens has real potential. With a stronger framework, the fragments could come together into something both moving and memorable.
NIUSIA
Edinburgh Festival Fringe
Reviewed on 10th August 2025 at Former Womens Locker Room at Summerhall
by Joseph Dunitz
Photography by Ryan Stewart
