Far Away: Nominated for Six National Fringe Theatre Awards — Ceremony 17th May
We are delighted to share that Far Away has received six nominations at the National Fringe Theatre Awards 2025/26, celebrating excellence in independent theatre across the UK. The awards ceremony takes place on 17th May 2026 at the Clapham Grand.
Far Away has been nominated for:
Best Costume Design
Best Direction
Best Ensemble in a Performance
Best Lighting Design
Best Production
Best Sound Design
Fringe theatre remains a critical space for artistic risk, experimentation and the development of new work — where ideas are not only imagined but rigorously tested and realised, where artists are afforded the freedom to question, disrupt and create beyond convention, and where new artistic voices emerge. At a time when the arts face increasing challenges, recognition and support of this work matters more than ever — not only in celebrating excellence, but in sustaining the wider theatre ecology.
In the lead-up to the ceremony, we are sharing reflections from the creative team behind Far Away on the processes that brought this work to life.
REBECCA McCUTCHEON — Director Nominated: Best Direction
"On our first visit to P3, we were thrilled and overwhelmed by its scale — you could do something enormous and ambitious here, as a space it feels almost limitless. You can imagine banks of armies marching through it, choruses dancing filling it. And yet — how would you ever fill this space?
Our first thoughts were all of its vastness and its sheer scale. We began to explore what happens if you flip this — consider the power of a single figure in a vast landscape. The act of focusing the eye, the ear, on a small thread of light, of sound. The possibilities of juxtaposing several frames at once. Frames which change as the viewer moves through the space. We listened to the space, watched it and explored it, and became intrigued — what is the smallest thing one can do here, and still hold the space? We collaborated with what P3 was already giving us….
Like most companies we faced early pragmatic problems: huge space, no budget. Or — huge space, restricted times. Yet we realised we shouldn't fall into the trap of thinking a big play requiring a big cast is needed — that would set a series of failures in motion. Who says big plays have big casts?
At its premiere in 2000, Far Away was declared both utterly powerful and completely bewildering by reviewers and audiences. Its jumps in time. Its strange, uncanny sense of being closely aligned to our world and yet not quite of it. Its move from early, creepy manipulation of a child through suggestion into full-blooded surreal imagery at the end, when species and categories of people find themselves in all-out war. In 2025, much of this felt closer and less strange. Each scene depicts a moral question, asked in almost abstract simplicity: how can you tell who is on your side when you don't trust anyone? How can you tell if someone is lying to you? What happens if you love someone but there is part of their world view you don't like?"
JACK HATHAWAY — Lighting Designer Nominated: Best Lighting Design
"On our first visit to P3 we became instantly aware of the huge scale of the venue and its quirks. From an early point we all chose not to shy away from this and in fact, built it into the design. Be it air handling that would not turn off or fire exit lights casting faint green shadows across the room, it all became a part of the show. The lighting never aimed to hide anything away and aimed to highlight the structures within the space, giving it life.
A particularly exciting element was the opportunity to play with scale. From intimate scenes in a low-ceilinged confined space to the expansiveness of the main hall. The audience would travel from one room to another… each room and corner was designed. We wanted there to be a story around each corner.
The lighting design was essentially split in two. We had the storytelling of the scenes — but also architectural lighting. We later realised how important it would be to help guide an audience around a dimly lit space. The lighting followed them around the room; strip lights would fade up and down to indicate direction. It was fascinating to see how subtle indicators such as this could be so effective in keeping the pace of the show moving forward. Lighting of the stairs was one of the first elements I thought of — I wanted as much of the lighting as possible to match the space, as if it had always been there."
NICOLA HEWITT-GEORGE — Set & Costume Designer Nominated: Best Costume Design
"My design process on Far Away was focused on the intersections of space, place and text in creating the dystopic world of the play, and the political, social and ecological parallels relevant to today. The challenge was to find the visual language in the communication of the themes and development of the narrative that would immerse the audience into this world within the space of Ambika P3.
On analysing the text, truth became a core focus for us — what that is, what it can mean and how it can be manipulated, especially in the current post-truth world of today. Additionally, the director and I were both inspired by the vast, open and flat landscapes and ecologies of the American flatlands and our own fenlands in the UK that felt like they belonged in Far Away — so my aim became recreating the feeling of these vast and isolated landscapes, and the vulnerability and distrust of each other that can come with them, in Ambika P3.
Costume challenges were that we needed quick changes — possibly on stage in front of audiences — so I went with a layered approach of being able to add and take items away to change the scene, using items that could foreshadow what was to come. For instance, the green overalls for Joan and Todd worked as a base layer that, with an apron over the top, are appropriate for the hat factory — and with an army vest, headpiece, or on their own, can suggest active army duty.
All the costume felt modern, but could also be placed in an earlier time — this was to add to the layering of the uncanny, and as a parallel to the way people refer to 'the good old days' as justification for atrocities and violence.
By Act Three, we have the sense that we are in a phase of societal and ecological collapse, and everyone is barely surviving — so all the costumes needed to reflect this. Joan's nightgown is stained with flood lines, Todd's stripped half down with a filthy white vest, and Harper is no longer comfy and neatly put together — she has on a mosquito head net and her now deceased husband's farm overalls, covered in mud and work."
LUCY ANN HARRISON — Sound Designer & Composer Nominated: Best Sound Design
"The opening of the show needed to introduce the audience both to the space and to the story. We needed the audience to move naturally around the space, guided by sound and light. I planned the opening audio through graphic scoring techniques — using images to represent sound — to show how the audience would move from the naturalistic sound outside the gallery into the immersive sound world of Far Away.
The industrial sounds of the space became more processed and blended with environmental sounds and a clarinet theme that introduced the character of Joan. Joan's theme became threaded through the production as Joan moved through the narrative."
LIZZIE HOPLEY — Actor Nominated: Best Ensemble in a Performance (with Samuel Gosrani and Lorna Dale)
"Choosing the unique space of Ambika P3 rather than a standard theatre setup pulled us right out of our comfort zone — exactly what Caryl Churchill's Far Away needs. The complex sound and lighting design allowed us to be fully immersive alongside our audience, creating a properly collective experience. You felt connected to your fellow performers even if they were out of sight. From Rebecca's first ideas to her final concept, it all became stunningly real."
The awards ceremony takes place 17th May 2026 at the Clapham Grand. Watch this space.
SIOBHAN BAUER — Associate Producer Nominated: Best Production
"My role as producer felt like one of stepping back and giving space — trusting an extraordinary creative team to work their magic, and watching them do exactly that. At times it felt like organising an installation, at others a rave — all part of the particular joy and challenge of working in an unusual space with a mobile audience. I was lucky: everyone was so organised, so committed, so generous with each other. Our stage manager Emma was incredible — the kind of person who makes the impossible feel effortless. And we couldn't have done any of it without the brilliant tech teams and staff at Ambika P3, who embraced the production and made us feel at home in that remarkable space.
This entire production thrived because of the partnerships and collaborative spirit that ran through every part of it. These nominations belong to all of them."