2025 IC Award - Best Production Shortlist
Weaving Me, Weaving Mum
The Great Her (UK/China)
Review
Weaving Me, Weaving Mum earns its place on the Best Production shortlist because it takes something deeply personal—the mother–daughter bond—and transforms it into a universal, intercultural story of healing.
The production stands out for its unique theatrical language: there are no spoken words, only movement, textiles, and hand-knitted costumes. This bold choice strips away linguistic barriers and creates a form that is at once intimate and expansive, accessible to audiences across cultures.
Equally, the piece demonstrates artistic innovation by weaving textiles into performance—not just as costume but as metaphor, memory, and storytelling device. It shows how traditional craft can become live theatre, and how personal trauma can be reshaped into collective resonance.
With its emotional depth, cross-cultural collaborations, and striking visual aesthetic, Weaving Me, Weaving Mum represents exactly the kind of boundary-pushing, globally relevant work the IC Awards seeks to highlight.
Synopsis
Weaving Me, Weaving Mum is an award-winning dance theatre work that tenderly explores the invisible threads between mothers and daughters. Created by Yuqiu, a playwright, director, and textile artist, the piece blends movement, hand-knitted costumes, and visual metaphor to tell a story of female growth, trauma, and reconciliation across generations. Produced by the female-led collective The Great Her, the performance transforms fabric and memory into living theatre—an intimate, universal reflection on care, healing, and connection.
Sàng Tsáu
Ssu Chen Wei Dance Company (Taiwan)
Review
Hsu Chen Wei Dance Company’s Sàng Tsáu earns its place on the shortlist for Best Production by reimagining a sacred Taoist “send-off” ritual as contemporary dance theatre of rare emotional and cultural resonance.
What makes the work exceptional is its ability to transform an intimate Taiwanese tradition into a universal experience of release, renewal, and healing. Through a movement language that is both precise and poetic, Sàng Tsáu creates a meditative space where audiences are invited not to mourn, but to let go of misfortune and welcome new beginnings.
Blending hand-crafted ritual paper beasts, symbolic scenography, and choreographic clarity, the production bridges folk craftsmanship with avant-garde theatre. Its adaptability—presented as both an intense duet for Fringe and as a larger immersive ritual with seven dancers—demonstrates artistic ambition and touring potential.
By crossing boundaries between spirituality and stagecraft, private ritual and public performance, Sàng Tsáu embodies innovation, intercultural dialogue, and profound emotional impact—qualities that make it a standout contender for Best Production.
Synopsis
Sàng Tsáu is a contemporary ritual dance rooted in Taiwanese Taoist “send-off” ceremonies. It is a blessing performance that invites audiences to release misfortune and welcome renewal. Created by choreographer Hsu Chen-Wei, the work transforms ritual into poetic movement. The Fringe version is a framed duet, offering a meditative and emotionally resonant experience. The full-length version features seven dancers and an immersive setting where audiences walk through the stage space. It incorporates traditional Taiwanese paper-craft, including hand-made ritual beasts and paper structures, blending cultural heritage with contemporary choreography.
The Gummy Bears' Great War, THEATRE
Batisfera (Italy)
Review
The Gummy Bears’ Great War earns its place as an IC Awards Best Production nominee by transforming the tiniest of materials into an epic meditation on fate, stubbornness, and the absurdity of war. Staged entirely on a table with real candies, small lights, and an intimate audience, the piece balances irony and tragedy with startling precision. The gummy bears’ futile defiance against the dinosaurs mirrors humanity’s own relentless pursuit of meaning, even in the face of inevitable defeat.
What makes this production extraordinary is its ability to evoke the grandeur of Greek tragedy while using nothing more than thousands of gummy bears, poetic narration, and simple design. It strips theatre to its barest form yet creates a universe that resonates across ages and cultures. By turning childhood playthings into soldiers of existential inquiry, the show reveals the universality of human will, faith, and resistance.
Portable, inventive, and profoundly moving, The Gummy Bears’ Great War demonstrates how small-scale theatre can achieve immense artistic impact—an unforgettable tragicomedy that is both accessible and deeply philosophical.
Synopsis
At dawn, the gummy bears declare war on the dinosaurs. The outcome is certain—yet their stubborn resistance raises timeless questions of fate, will, and meaning. Performed on a tabletop with real candies, small lights, and intimate audiences, this object-theatre gem transforms the absurd into the profound. Blending humour and tragedy, the piece becomes both playful spectacle and existential allegory, proving that even the smallest stage can hold the largest questions of life.
The Anti "Yogi", THEATER
Mayuri Bhandari (United States)
Review
The Anti-Yogi is a fierce, genre-defying performance that cuts through the glossy veneer of Western yoga culture to reclaim the practice’s deeper spiritual roots. With Kali, the Goddess of Death, at her side, performer and creator Mayuri Bhandari dismantles stereotypes of the “yogi” as a consumer-driven fitness identity and reframes it as a pursuit of truth, renunciation, and liberation.
Blending dance, drama, comedy, poetry, and live percussion by Neel Agrawal, Bhandari creates an experience that is at once satirical and profound. Her choreography and spoken word weave together issues of cultural appropriation, decolonisation, identity, and erasure, transforming lecture-like topics into an embodied, visceral dialogue with the audience.
What makes this production stand out is its hybridity: classical Indian dance reimagined as critique, ritual colliding with satire, and live sound underscoring personal storytelling. The Anti-Yogi is not only a powerful work of art but also a call for authenticity and agency in the global conversation around culture and spirituality.
Synopsis
The Anti “Yogi” is a bold, genre-defying solo show by Mayuri Bhandari that dismantles the absurdities of Western yoga culture. Blending classical Indian dance, contemporary movement, comedy, spoken word, and live percussion, it confronts cultural appropriation and reclaims the true ethos of yoga. With Kali, the Goddess of Death, by her side, Bhandari leads audiences on a journey through satire, ritual, and resistance—peeling back the yoga mat to reveal deeper questions of identity, power, and liberation.
The Light Catcher, THEATER
Ritika Shrotri (India)
Review
The Light Catcher stands out as one of the most compelling solo works at the Fringe this year. Performed by Ritika Shrotri, the piece follows photographer Kanika on a journey to rediscover her “favourite portrait.” In the process, the women she has photographed across the globe—from Ethiopia to Pakistan, India to the UK—step off the page and onto the stage, their lives vividly embodied through ten distinct characters.
What makes this production remarkable is not only the virtuosity of its performer, seamlessly shifting voices, accents, and physicalities, but also its ability to transform still images into living, breathing stories. Each “portrait” becomes a meditation on memory, freedom, beauty, trauma, and resilience.
The writing by Niranjan Pedanekar and direction by Sanket Parkhe balance intimacy with universality, ensuring the stories resonate far beyond their specific cultural origins. Inspired by the ethical weight of iconic photojournalism, the play also asks difficult questions about what it means to bear witness to another’s suffering, and what responsibility art carries.
Minimal staging and precise use of light create the illusion of moving through a photographer’s portfolio, while the emotional range ensures every frame lingers. Already celebrated in India and selected by international festivals, The Light Catcher epitomises intercultural theatre: portable, powerful, and profoundly human.
Synopsis
What if the perfect photograph wasn’t in an album but hidden in life itself? The Light Catcher follows a celebrated Indian photographer, Kanika, who’s on a quest to find her favourite portrait. As she revisits portraits of women from Ethiopia to Pakistan, India to UK, their stories come alive on stage – some heartwarming, some hard-hitting, all unforgettable. Performed by Ritika Shrotri, who transforms into 10 dynamic characters, written by Niranjan Pedanekar and directed by Sanket Parkhe. Book your tickets now and step into a world where every frame tells a story!
Is This Normal?, THEATER
Ansa Edim (Performer), Sriya Sarkar (Director) (United States)
Review
Ansa Edim’s Is This Normal? is a tour de force of contemporary storytelling—raw, darkly funny, and unflinchingly honest. Following its acclaimed four-star debut at the 2024 Fringe, the show returns with even sharper writing and deeper emotional resonance. At its heart, it is a deeply personal yet universally relatable exploration of shame, identity collapse, and the arduous task of self-reinvention.
What makes this production stand out is its ability to balance vulnerability and humour. Edim transforms her dating disasters and heartbreaks into more than anecdotes; they become metaphors for the crushing weight of societal expectations and the courage required to step outside of them. With minimalist staging and a conversational style, the work strips away theatrical artifice to create a direct, intimate connection with its audience.
Its universality—of self-doubt, resilience, and the search for authenticity—transcends cultural borders, making Is This Normal? both timely and timeless. This is storytelling at its finest: gripping, empathetic, and unforgettable.
Synopsis
Award-winning storyteller Ansa Edim returns to the Fringe with a darkly funny and deeply personal solo show. Blending humour, vulnerability, and sharp social commentary, Is This Normal? unpacks dating disasters, heartbreak, and the heavy weight of expectations placed on women. Through intimate storytelling, Edim explores identity collapse, shame, and the messy process of reinvention, asking the universal question: What does it mean to stop performing “normal” and start becoming whole?
Lolo’s Boyfriend Show,THEATER
Lauren O'Brien (United States)
Review
Lolo’s Boyfriend Show earns its place on the Best Production shortlist through its fearless blend of cabaret, confessional storytelling, and sharp comedic writing. Performed and created by Lauren O’Brien, this one-woman powerhouse moves with remarkable pace and control, as O’Brien embodies 18 characters with seamless precision and undertakes 12 onstage quick changes that feel as dazzling as they are purposeful.
What sets the work apart is its tonal dexterity. Beneath the punk cabaret aesthetic and biting humour lies a deeply affecting narrative of self-harm, toxic relationships, and hard-won self-redemption. The production transforms personal trauma into a shared theatrical experience that resonates widely, engaging audiences of all ages and backgrounds.
With international acclaim—winner of the Audience Choice Award at NYC Fringe and a successful Off-Broadway run—the show demonstrates not only technical excellence but also global impact. Bold, cathartic, and irresistibly entertaining, Lolo’s Boyfriend Show exemplifies how intimate theatre can achieve both artistry and universality.
Synopsis
A punk cabaret solo show by Lauren O’Brien, Lolo’s Boyfriend Show is an outrageous yet heartfelt journey through love, loss, and redemption. After her dream European tour collapses, Lolo returns to her childhood bedroom haunted by the ghosts of disastrous relationships. O’Brien embodies 18 characters with dazzling quick changes and fearless physicality, blending biting humour with moments of raw vulnerability. Winner of the Audience Choice Award at NYC Fringe and acclaimed Off-Broadway, the show resonates across generations, transforming personal chaos into a universal story of resilience, survival, and self-discovery.
Three Can Keep a Secret,THEATER
Theatre Unleashed (United States)
Review
Three Can Keep a Secret earns its place on the shortlist for Best Production with a daring fusion of crime thriller, dark comedy, and interactive theatre. What begins as a seemingly straightforward hit job quickly unravels into a night of chaos, where the fates of Moose and Sonny lie not in their own hands, but in the hands of the audience.
The brilliance of the show lies in its structure: multiple decision points, three possible endings, and over two dozen narrative branches developed through years of experimentation. This design ensures no two performances are the same, turning each night into a high-stakes game where humour and suspense collide. The witty script balances irony with menace, while the cast’s sharp performances ground the absurdity in emotional truth.
Minimalist in staging but maximal in imagination, the piece exemplifies how interactivity can be used not as a gimmick, but as a storytelling engine. By empowering audiences to choose the twists and turns of a murder plot, Three Can Keep a Secret transforms spectators into accomplices—making the show a gripping, unforgettable theatrical ride worthy of international acclaim.
Synopsis
A darkly funny interactive crime thriller where the audience decides the fate of two hapless anti-heroes, Moose and Sonny, as their “easy score” spirals into chaos. With multiple decision points and three possible endings, no two shows are the same. Smart writing, gripping performances, and sharp humour make this award-winning piece an unpredictable theatrical ride.
The “Bear” Child, CHILDREN'S SHOWS
Beijing Baxun Cultural Media Co. Ltd (China)
Review
The Bear Child stands out for its ability to transform the everyday chaos of family life into a universally resonant theatrical experience. Using a non-verbal blend of physical theatre, mime, and comedy, it speaks across languages and cultures, allowing children and adults alike to see themselves in the story. The show’s playful imagination—where a child turns the home into a world of wonder—balances beautifully with the tenderness and exhaustion of parenthood.
Its artistic merit lies in its simplicity and accessibility: by stripping away words, it highlights the pure expressiveness of movement and gesture, creating emotional clarity that connects with audiences of all ages. With an impressive international touring record across China, Malaysia, and the UK, and recognition from venues like the Lyric Hammersmith, The Bear Child has proven both its artistic excellence and global appeal.
It is this combination of universality, craft, and heartfelt storytelling that makes The Bear Child a deserving finalist for Best Production.
Synopsis
The Bear Child is a lively, non-verbal family theatre production that blends dance, mime, and comedy to portray the chaos and tenderness of parent–child relationships. A mischievous child’s imagination transforms the home into a world of wonder, while parents juggle love, discipline, and exhaustion. Accessible to audiences of all ages and cultures, the show uses physical humour and heartfelt storytelling to celebrate the messy, joyful reality of family life.