★★★★★

“unapologetic, bold, brave, and brilliantly acted”

A single actor sits facing upstage in a small Fringe theatre. One chair. A pillow. Two torches (flashlights). That’s all — and it’s all that’s needed. This is Fringe perfection.

I could say I’m old — or rather, well-seasoned. When I was young, we’d get drunk, have sex with one another, make mistakes, and pretend to forget what happened in the morning. Times have changed. For new generations, sex is more fluid, more available, more visible on the internet, roles more varied and accepted — and yet it also seems far more complicated, even impossible. Today it’s not just a physical act; it’s a mental one too — an intimate terrain of permission, perception, and potential misstep. When did sex quit being fun?

Cameron Murphy has crafted a show that is beautiful, complicated, and deeply human. We live in a time where so much feels like a minefield — where we censor what we do, say, and maybe even think. Murphy doesn’t tiptoe through those mines. In Role Play, he dances through them, unafraid — because what he’s expressing is truth. And truth might be the only thing that keeps us from harm.

The story is true. An aspiring actor falls for a girl in high school. He never connects with her — she becomes “the one who got away.” Years later, he finds her online. He sells a prized possession to buy a ticket to see her. What unfolds is an unflinching coming-of-age tale: tender, darkly honest, taboo-laced, and utterly human. It’s the hottest day in Belgian history, and the heat of long-lost teenage infatuation collides with the fire of twenty-something explorations of identity and sexual permissiveness.

Role Play lays bare the choreography we all perform in love — the parts we play, the masks we wear. This is not a fairy-tale romance. Murphy strips himself emotionally to the core, telling “the story [he] was most afraid to tell” — the one that proves all of us, in some way, are trying to be good actors, hoping our performance is enough. Hoping to connect.

Well directed by Paolo Laskero, the show clearly benefits from an outside eye. Role Play is the perfect Fringe piece: unapologetic, bold, brave, and brilliantly acted. Murphy’s delivery flows like a spontaneous tirade — yet beneath it is a deliberate structure and vocal rhythm. In music, a repeated phrase or pattern becomes an ostinato, creating unity and hypnotic tension; here, repetition becomes the heartbeat of the piece — or perhaps the mended heart that serves as its central metaphor.

It’s architectural. Patterns return. Emotional arcs loop and resolve. The two torches become instruments of self-lighting, sculpting the space and punctuating scenes with precision.

The result: fifty vulnerable minutes, choreographed and sculpted with skill. Great art requires permission, surrender, and acceptance. This work demands all three — and somehow gives back more. It’s also quite funny, and Murphy’s wit and charm light the room even when the torches are off.

HAMLET – WAKEFULNESS

Edinburgh Festival Fringe

★★★★

“an intriguing piece, and certainly inhabits new territory for adaptations”

A prequel to Shakespeare’s Hamlet comes to this year’s Edinburgh Fringe, courtesy of Poland’s Theatre of the Goat (Teatr Pieśń Kozła). This is Hamlet as you’ve never seen it, although never heard it, might be a better description. This work is all about the impressive singing that is the distinguishing feature of this company, under the direction of Grzegorz Bral. In sixty minutes or so in the Main Hall at Summerhall, Hamlet – Wakefulness provides a full throated meditation on “wakefulness”. As director Bral explains before the show begins, it’s an awakening to the imagined events on the night that old King Hamlet dies. It is also a mourning, a “wake” for the old King, two months before the events of Shakespeare’s play begin.

Teatr Pieśń Kozła’s was founded in the late 1990’s in Wrocław by Bral and Anna Zubrzycka. It often takes classics by Shakespeare, Euripides and others as a starting point for its explorations. Supported by anthropological and ethnomusicological fieldwork, the company focuses on ancient rituals. These rituals focus on polyphonic laments. Over the years, the company has developed its own specialized techniques for training the voices of its performers, and the result is a distinctive sound that provides great insight into the sacred practices of ancient cultures.

It’s important to approach Hamlet – Wakefulness through the music, rather than the play. Other than a few references to speeches such as “Oh what a rogue and peasant slave am I” and a defamiliarization of familiar characters, there’s not much relationship to Shakespeare’s Hamlet. This is not so much a drama, as a liturgy, or even an opera. What catches our attention at the beginning of the show is the setting. There’s a hint of a bed for old Hamlet to lie in state upon, and silver chairs with a vague nod to Scottish symbolism in design, and cleverly constructed to hide swords. The only musical instrument on stage is the Swedish nyckelharpa. This production is nothing but eclectic in its sources for inspiration.

The production hints at Hamlet, no more. We are introduced to Gertrude and Hamlet in a sketch of the closet scene, and it’s Gertrude’s scene, make no mistake. “Hamlet is mad” she proclaims at several points, and her declaration successfully sidelines her son in favour of her new husband. When Claudius isn’t confronting someone in the cast, he is conducting the chorus—often at the same time. And in any case, a hint of Hamlet is fine, because the singing is remarkable. It may well have its origins in the laments women have sung at wakes since ancient times, as director Bral explains, but the music will also remind you of the chants of monks. There is a profoundly spiritual feel to this version of Shakespeare’s story of incest, murder and revenge. Best to let go of expectations, and just lose yourself in the song.

Hamlet – Wakefulness is an intriguing piece, and certainly inhabits new territory for adaptations from Shakespeare. If choral singing is important to you, and you’re intrigued by the idea of a Polish performance company that is justifiably celebrated for its unique approach to ancient music and classic texts, you’ll get a lot out of this show. You’ll carry the sound, and the spirituality, out of the theatre, and on your journey home.

Tag Archives: EFR25

ROLE PLAY (OR THE HOTTEST DAY IN BELGIAN HISTORY)

★★★★★

Edinburgh Festival Fringe

ROLE PLAY (OR THE HOTTEST DAY IN BELGIAN HISTORY)

Edinburgh Festival Fringe

★★★★★

“unapologetic, bold, brave, and brilliantly acted”

ROLE PLAY (OR THE HOTTEST DAY IN BELGIAN HISTORY)

Edinburgh Festival Fringe

Reviewed on 11th August 2025 at Ivy Studio at Greenside @ George Street

by Louis Kavouras

Photography by Jill Petracek

ROLE PLAY

ROLE PLAY

ROLE PLAY

HAMLET – WAKEFULNESS

★★★★

Edinburgh Festival Fringe

HAMLET – WAKEFULNESS

Edinburgh Festival Fringe

★★★★

“an intriguing piece, and certainly inhabits new territory for adaptations”