{"id":1155607,"date":"2026-08-18T12:56:22","date_gmt":"2026-08-18T12:56:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1155607\/"},"modified":"2026-08-18T12:56:22","modified_gmt":"2026-08-18T12:56:22","slug":"a-review-of-sht-faced-shakespeare-hamlet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1155607\/","title":{"rendered":"A review of Sh!t-faced Shakespeare\u00ae: Hamlet"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Almost everyone I know goes to Sh!t-Faced Shakespeare at some point during the Edinburgh Fringe. It\u2019s a solid Fringe tradition, or an old charter, or something\u2026 and although this year\u2019s show is Hamlet, I\u2019ll preface by saying that no performance is ever quite the same. <\/p>\n

Vibe<\/p>\n

Just like last year, the venue is the McEwan Hall<\/strong>, and it\u2019s already pretty full when I get there. There was under 10 minutes until the performance, and no-one had grabbed their \u2018sirloin seat\u2019, so I took it with confidence. Not a bad view! I was later joined by a gent who had the same idea. <\/p>\n

In true Sh!t-Faced Shakespeare style, the format is as follows: We have a few classically trained Shakespearean actors on stage performing a cut-down version of Hamlet \u2013 but one of them is very drunk. Typically this leads to much shenanigans and hilarity. We\u2019re also told the rules \u2013 including extras like making sure the actor stays drunk with the genius mechanisms of a gong and a party popper, and what to do with \u2018the bucket\u2019 should it be required.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Performance<\/p>\n

For this performance, it was the Queen\u2019s turn to be drunk in Hamlet. We were shown how much they\u2019d had to drink, and the performance starts. They don\u2019t announce who\u2019s drunk (they never do) but it\u2019s quite obvious when they actors come out which one it is. This gets a few giggles with some pretty vigorous hijinks right off the bat. <\/p>\n

This is not like any Hamlet you\u2019ve known. In fact, this particular performance of Hamlet goes so far off-piste, with scatting and jazz, that it\u2019s fair to say it\u2019s a totally unique, one-off art piece. However, it\u2019s also so far removed from Hamlet (with the host having to often remind the actors to at least try to say one line off the script) that actually, it no longer feels that funny or that Hamlet. <\/p>\n

In the end, I think it was Laertes and Horatio who ended up on the thrones! Gertrude and Hamlet run away. Normally this isn\u2019t a problem for me \u2013 I mean, I was all for it when Helena and Lysander ran off to start a feminist colony at last year\u2019s Midsummer Night\u2019s Dream<\/a> (five stars). It\u2019s not the reason I\u2019m marking the show down this year. <\/p>\n

I\u2019m afraid this performance was a bit of a miss for me, and I could tell from small groups of the audience leaving at various times in the show, that it wasn\u2019t really for them, either. I was a bit disappointed, because usually Sh!t-Faced Shakespeare feels like a chaotic, silly and riotous joy to watch, with a lot of belly laughs, so I\u2019m going to chalk it up to a bad night. <\/p>\n

Overall<\/p>\n

I\u2019m afraid Sh!t-Faced Shakespeare: Hamlet was a bit of a miss for me, however please take note that every single performance will be different \u2013 it\u2019s chaotic, unpredictable fun and usually it\u2019s an hour well spent. I think this one just missed the mark for me and I didn\u2019t laugh anywhere near as much as I\u2019d usually expect to. <\/p>\n

Although it\u2019s still got that chaotic, unpredictable energy, and it\u2019s entertaining with classically trained Shakespearean actors \u2013 one of them drunk \u2013 doing their thing with the famous words of William Shakespeare<\/strong>, it didn\u2019t do it for me. But, I think on a different night, I\u2019d still recommend. <\/p>\n

Sh!t-faced Shakespeare\u00ae: Hamlet<\/p>\n

Bronwen Winter Phoenix<\/p>\n

Summary<\/p>\n

Still chaotic, unpredictable, and entertaining with classically trained Shakespearean actors \u2013 one of them drunk \u2013 doing their thing with the famous words of William Shakespeare<\/strong>. I think on a different night, I\u2019d still recommend you go. <\/p>\n

\n\tRelated<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Almost everyone I know goes to Sh!t-Faced Shakespeare at some point during the Edinburgh Fringe. It\u2019s a solid…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1155608,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[8816],"tags":[748,307141,1102,307142,4884,712,16,15],"class_list":["post-1155607","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-edinburgh","tag-britain","tag-edfest","tag-edinburgh","tag-fringe-2026","tag-great-britain","tag-scotland","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/117116628035464904","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1155607","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1155607"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1155607\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1155608"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1155607"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1155607"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1155607"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}