Hamlet – Wakefulness

Aug 13 2025 | By Hugh Simpson More

★★★☆☆ Keyed up

Summerhall (Venue 26): Sun 3 – Fri 15 Aug 2025
Review by Hugh Simpson

Hamlet – Wakefulness, at Summerhall for the Fringe’s first two weeks, is an undoubtedly powerful affair, whose eventual effect is decidedly mixed.

Polish-based Song of the Goat’s production has the stated aim of showing the roots and hidden sides of Shakespeare’s play. Grzegorz Bral’s adaptation is set sometime before the murder of the old king, although does include some elements from Hamlet itself.

Hamlet – Wakefulness from Song of the Goat. Pic: Sandra Korczak.

The intention to ‘reflect the ideas Shakespeare hinted at’ is a common one and probably best avoided on the whole. There is certainly a compelling element to the action, which blends words from the original with new material, with events taking on the urgent quality of a ritual, even becoming overwrought at times.

How much it adds to our understanding of Shakespeare is quite another matter, unless you’ve always wanted to hear old Hamlet snarl ‘quiet, bitch’ at Gertrude.

It all suggests that the more mysterious Song of the Goat are, the better; it tends to have more power when you can’t make out the words. Which is often the case with the polyphonic music, with hints of church, opera and folk, with a ten-strong chorus of voices occasionally accompanied by the nyckelharpa (a kind of keyed fiddle).

raw power

The singing certainly has a raw power, harnessed into a tremendously well drilled ensemble. There is certainly more expressed about the characters in the singing than in the parts in between; perhaps still not enough, however, in a production that is arresting but ultimately frustrating.

Running time: 55 minutes (no interval).
Summerhall (Main Hall), 1 Summerhall, EH9 1PL. (Venue 26).
Sunday 3 – Friday 15 August 2025.
Daily (not Tues 12): 10.50pm.
Tickets and details: Book here on EdFringe.com.
Book here on EdFest.com.*