★★★★

“compelling, funny, and, at times, quietly challenging”

Sam Kissajukian opens 300 Paintings by telling us he is quitting comedy to become an artist. It is a ridiculous premise, he admits, and one that becomes the launchpad for a fast-paced, funny, and unexpectedly thoughtful hour that straddles stand-up, TED Talk, and autobiographical theatre.

In 2021, during a six-month manic episode, Kissajukian created 300 paintings, unknowingly documenting his mental state through the process. The show charts this period and its aftermath, skipping at speed through his evolving artistic styles, obsessions, and experiments. One recurring joke is just how quickly he abandons each new phase in pursuit of the next, a habit both comic and revealing. His philosophy, he tells us, is quantity over quality.

The set-up could feel minimal – just Kissajukian, a projection screen, and his story – but his charisma more than fills the space. He knows how to land a punchline, how to keep a rhythm, and how to pull the audience along even when the journey veers from art-world satire into something stranger and more personal. His recounting of a phase in his journey to create 30 inventions in 30 days, and eventually securing a $10,000 investment, is both absurd and oddly moving, throwing up questions about what art is, how we measure its value, and how business and creativity intersect.

There is a self-awareness here about form, too. Kissajukian uses the tools of stand-up to deliver a show that is not quite stand-up, playing with audience expectations of comedy while giving us something closer to a storytelling lecture. The effect is both disarming and refreshing, and it gives space for more serious reflections to land.

Those reflections are often on mental health, specifically his experience of bipolar disorder. At points, he shows us the symptoms of bipolar and depression, triggering that familiar audience reflex of self-diagnosis, only to turn it on its head with a comment about the creative peaks such states can sometimes bring. It opens up a fascinating tension: how far should we push ourselves for our art, and is great work worth it if it comes at the cost of wellbeing?

The simplicity of the staging keeps the focus firmly on Kissajukian as a storyteller. There is a thrill in watching someone take such big risks, not just in the work he makes, but in the way he shares it. His willingness to embrace absurdity and to place his mental health experiences at the centre of his art makes for an hour that is compelling, funny, and, at times, quietly challenging.

There are moments when the pace dips, but the overall effect is one of openness and curiosity, a show that invites us to think about art and mental health not as separate concerns but as intertwined processes. It is messy, human, and really very funny.

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: Summerhall

300 PAINTINGS

★★★★

Edinburgh Festival Fringe

300 PAINTINGS

Edinburgh Festival Fringe

★★★★

“compelling, funny, and, at times, quietly challenging”

300 PAINTINGS

Edinburgh Festival Fringe

Reviewed on 10th August 2025 at Main Hall at Summerhall

by Joseph Dunitz

Photography by Limor Garfinkle

300 PAINTINGS

300 PAINTINGS

300 PAINTINGS

HAMLET – WAKEFULNESS

★★★★

Edinburgh Festival Fringe

HAMLET – WAKEFULNESS

Edinburgh Festival Fringe

★★★★

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