'Bumper year' for Scottish theatre as story of Botanics palm named top by critics

It was an Edinburgh Festival Fringe show performed in the Botanic Gardens, before going on to the Royal Lyceum Theatre Edinburgh.

Now Windblown, by Karine Polwart, has been named the best production of the year by Scotland’s theatre critics.

The piece, produced by Raw Material, was inspired by the story of the Sabal palm which had stood in the Royal Botanic Garden in Edinburgh for more than 200 years. Having outgrown the glass house, this oldest living specimen in the collection, had to be chopped down in 2021.

Meanwhile, Alan Cumming’s stage revival of 1990s cult TV show The High Life won Best Ensemble at the Critics’ Awards for Theatre in Scotland (CATS), while Dominic Hill, artistic director of the Citizens Theatre, picked up a record-breaking sixth Best Director award for Waiting for Godot.

The High Life: The Musical included the four actors from the original 1990s BBC TV series: Alan Cumming, Forbes Masson, Siobhán Redmond and Patrick Ryecart.

The High Life: The Musical starred all four of the original cast. | CATS

Jessica Hardwick picked up her second Outstanding Performance Award, following Knives in Hens in 2018, for Gush at the Traverse Theatre. Also receiving an Outstanding Performance Award was the Johnny McKnight for his dazzling exploration of the changing world of the pantomime Dame, in She’s Behind You! by the National Theatre of Scotland and Traverse Theatre.

A total of 10 different productions were recognised across the 11 different award categories this year.

Water Colour, the debut play by Milly Sweeney, a Byre Theatre production in partnership with Playwrights’ Studio, Scotland and Pitlochry Festival Theatre, which won Best New Play, was one of over 90 new works staged across Scotland in 2025-2026.

“Scottish Theatre has had a bumper year with 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,” says CATS co-convenor and Scotsman critic, Joyce McMillan.

“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.”

Jessica Hardwick in Gush. | CATS

Best Production for Children and Young People this year went to the Citizens Theatre for Beauty and the Beast with Perth Theatre picking up the Outstanding Pantomime Award for The Snow Queen.

The Best Design Award was won by Danish-Japanese set and costume designer, Mai Katsume, with Simon Wilkinson, (lighting and design), for the Vanishing Point-Katapult Teater co-production What and I’m Here for and Best Technical was awarded to Shotput Theatre for Arlington.

The awards were presented at an event in Glasgow’s Citizens Theatre by leading Scottish actor Gavin Mitchell, best known for his playing of Boaby the Barman in the much-loved television series Still Game and, most recently, American President John Adams. Mr Mitchell, who is currently filming the latest series of Shetland and will be back on stage in Glasgow this Christmas in Scrooge: The Musical at the SEC Armadillo, began his career as a scene painter and stage extra at the theatre - which reopened to the public last year after a major refurbishment - in the 1980s.

Karine Polwart in Windblown | contributed

“This has been an important year for the Citizens Theatre,” said CATS co-convenor, Mark Brown. “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.”