*** STARS
‘Tis the eve of the king’s funeral in this revised exploration of Hamlet, by the Polish theatre group Song of the Goat. And songs there are aplenty, giving this intimate setting an opera-worthy performance with voices that quickly start pouring out of Summerhall’s main stage.
Grzegorz Bral introduces us to Hamlet – Wakefulness with a warmly mystical anecdote about his own father’s funeral that acts as a great introduction to the show’s main premise: death. The group puts a fitting spin on funeral traditions, with a Gothic setting and a bit of Scottish folklore and paganism – although at times, the theatricality of the movements (like the ghost of the king, wielding a sword and standing on a table, looking too much like a Jedi) gets lost in interpretation.
The main narrative here is an hour-long wailing hymn – a flawless execution by a talented troupe full of beautiful voices that are just too big for this stage. But while classics such as Hamlet need no introduction or traditional retelling, the script disappears in micro-breaks of short-lived statements like ‘Quiet, bitch’ shouted into the black void of the stage before disappearing in the echo of a few awkward laughs.
The movements are haunting and beautiful sequences flow through the story with good scene breaks, but they’re not enough to hypnotise or make up for gritty words uncomfortably stuttering and breaking the flow of each song. While Bral took to the stage at the end of the show to blame acoustics for this, the fault might lie with forcing a literal interpretation of a very old text in a show that promises to break away from conservatism. Maybe it would be worth stepping away from trying to make this a comfortable viewing for British audiences, who know the text so well anyway, and use this opportunity to play with the Polish language, which is just as old, just as rich as the story itself.
Hamlet – Wakefulness makes for a good alternative watch for audiences that want to see something a little more original, but personally I felt almost like an impatient child, thinking that perhaps I just didn’t get it. But the beauty of physical theatre is that you don’t have to understand it – you just need to feel it.
Hamlet – Wakefulness is on at Summerhall until 15 August.
edfringe.com/tickets/whats-on/hamlet-wakefulness
Review date: 8 August 2025
Main Photo Credit Dagmara Przeradzka
