BRIGHTON FRINGE AWARD FOR EXCELLENCE IN ASSOCIATION WITH THE ACTORS THEATRE WINNER ANNOUNCED!

We are very pleased to announce this years Brighton Fringe Award for Excellence in Association with The Actors Theatre, which was awarded at the Scotsman Fringe Awards ceremony by Richard Jordan of The Stage. After a year of amazing shows and tough judging decisions, Character Flaw by Philippa Dawson was selected as the winner for 2023! She will receive a free registration to take part in Brighton Fringe 2024, £500 toward production costs and a favourable hire deal with The Actors Theatre.

Character Flaw is an explortation of Philippa's experiences and journey through life with ADHD. Combining a mixture of sketches, personal anecdotes, trumpets, storytelling and more, you get an insight into the often-overlooked experiences of women with ADHD and the joys of living with neurodivergence. It is a heartwarming and emotionally vulnerable show that audiences have connected with massively. Philippa Dawson is a London-based performer, and debuted Character Flaw this year in London and at Edinburgh Fringe. (Instagram / Twitter)

“What a joyous example of Neurodiverse representation and I feel better for having gone to go see it. A pleasure to watch.” - Binge Fringe.

Philippa's response to winning the award was, "I’ve never been so gobsmacked in my life as when I won this award!!  Writing, producing and performing Character Flaw was a huge amount of work and emotions were high. Working on your own leaves room for a lot of insecurities to creep in … so to be recognised in this way was just incredible. I struggled with imposter syndrome a lot during Edinburgh Fringe and feel I didn’t always get as much joy out of the festival as I could have because of how I was feeling about my work. But after winning this award my confidence has really grown and I think one of the biggest things I’m looking forward to at Brighton is just being present and enjoying it! I can’t wait for more people to see the show and hope it keeps resonating with the neurodivergent and queer community especially!"

We would also like to congratulate runners-up Diana: The Untold and Untrue Story by Awkward Productions, as well as Birthmarked by Brook Tate who received a special commendation. Both of these events will receive a free registration for Brighton Fringe 2024.

Brighton Fringe were delighted to return to present the Brighton Fringe Award for Excellence at Edinburgh Fringe. The Brighton Fringe Award for Excellence has been running since 2011, and this year we were proud to be presenting the award in association with The Actors Theatre.

The Actors Theatre launched its Brighton Fringe venue for 2023 and won the Best Venue award, with a queer-focussed programme at the historic LGBTQ+ pub. At Brighton Fringe 2024 they will have two venue spaces, the main theatre space and the west bar where they're hoping to host a free Fringe.

A big congratulations to all of the shortlisted shows.