Acclaimed theatre company Lung Ha has won Best Ensemble at the 2023 Critics’ Awards for Theatre in Scotland for its play Castle Lennox.

A co-production with the Royal Lyceum Theatre, Castle Lennox is set in 1969 and tells the story of Annis, a young autistic woman who’s sent by her stepmother to live as a patient at an institution where the rules of the outside world do not apply.

Linda McLean wrote the play with songs, by MJ McCarthy, about the strength, wit and resilience of those who were sent to institutions for people with learning disabilities during a regime of segregation from the 1930s to the 1990s. The setting is based on a real place.

Reviewer Tom Dibdin said:

“Castle Lennox saw possibly the most brilliantly diverse cast on any stage this year bring a complex play about a truly shameful element of Scotland’s social history to light. Lung Ha always create work which impresses but this production, which we have had to wait so many years to see, took their unique method of using an all-professional cast of people with and without learning disabilities to a new level with a production that was frequently funny as well as utterly heartbreaking.”

Braw Clan’s Fletcher Mathers, who performed in Castle Lennox, said:

“Working on this play was like being part of a fun, beautiful, nurturing family. I’m so delighted and proud to have been part of this award-winning ensemble and important production.”

Read Tom’s full review on AllEdinburghTheatre.com here.