As part of our 25th anniversary celebrations we wanted to pull together some NIE memories from various people who have worked with, or supported, us during the last quarter of a century!

This article is the first in a series, where we have asked people to answer three quick fire questions and share their NIE memories! We asked each person we spoke to when they first worked with NIE, their favourite NIE show or project and the most memorable place they’ve visited with the company.

We are starting with four people who have primarily worked with our UK team, but we will be sharing more of these answers in future articles and look forward to hearing from people who have worked across the company including our C0-Artistic Directors, Alex and Kjell and Associate Director Iva Moberg, who founded NIE back in 2001!

I first worked with NIE in 2011 on North North North, and with that came the most memorable place I’ve been with the company: travelling to the arctic circle and the most northern town in the world of Longyearbyen, Svalbard. We were there during the season of 24hour darkness – dog sledding across the wilderness was a memory that will stay with me forever.

My favourite project is hard to pinpoint – I’ve loved making all the projects I’ve been involved with, but Beauty and the Beast was pretty special – it felt so exciting creating some very atmospheric scenes and also making something that had lots of scope for joyous improvisation with the audience. Worth saying too that I’ve always loved the making of songs and music with the company – as someone who isn’t especially skilled in music, the process of creating great music as an ensemble is amazing.

I joined the board of NIE in the summer of 2013 and stepped down in the summer of 2024, after just over ten amazing years as a board member and chair.  I have to confess I did not know a great deal about NIE’s work before I joined and it was before the outstanding education and community work.  But the performance that made the most impact on me was Pim and Theo at the Cambridge Junction. The most memorable place I visited with NIE was Galway. I managed to coincide a weekend away with a performance of NIE’s joint production with Branar Theatre, Grand Soft Day, in December 2023  – it was typical Irish weather, but a lovely show.

Happy Birthday! And well done for all your brilliant work over the last quarter of a century!

I first worked with NIE in the summer of 2011.  I think my favourite NIE show/project has always been The End Of Everything Ever, right from when I first saw it (before I’d trained as an actor). I remember watching it and thinking ‘Wow! That’s gorgeous! What a magical ensemble! So funny and so clear and moving! I wanna do stuff like that!’…. And, then, things came full circle when in 2012, Alex asked me to be in the show, in Mseno, in Okinawa and, finally, in Berlin… where, I remember, the audience sat in silent contemplation for several minutes at the end of the show, so resonant it was.