"To listen to weeping as music and to observe funerals as theatre is controversial," says Grzegorz Bral. "This was not an easy task."

Winner of The Guardian's award for Best International Show on the Edinburgh Fringe, Chronicles: A Lamentation is the finale of Aurora Nova In The South, a season of international physical theatre and dance cherry-picked from the programme of Komedia's Edinburghbased sister venue. It is also, according to pretty much everyone who's already done so, a "must see" event.

Described variously as "stunning", "fascinating" and "a bull's eye on the heart", Chronicles is the work of Poland's Teatr Piesn Kozla (or Song Of The Goat Theatre). Based in the refectory of a 14th-Century Monastery in Wroclaw, they have described themselves as "theatre archeologists" and take their research so seriously that they have produced only two shows in their eight-year history.

For this latest, a unique blend of movement, storytelling and song, the company poured their energies into unearthing the grieving rituals of the ancient world, in particular the polyphonic songs and laments of Albania.

Initially they were hesitant - as founder Bral explains, the idea of observing and appropriating displays of grief was more than a little contentious. But then, he says, they came across the tradition of "lamentation deceits".

"We found a place where families deliberately, for their own personal reasons, did not wish the wailers to tell the truth about their dear departed,"

Bral explains. "They requested that the life story the wailer would tell should be embroidered with semi-mythical events, stories which were not true, events that had never happened. This, in itself, was already 'theatre', although tears were real."

In keeping with this, Teatr Piesn Kozla have used, as the axis for their non-narrative outpourings, the story of Gilgamesh - an ancient Sumerian epic inscribed on stone tablets more than 5,000 years ago.

Part man, part god, Gilgamesh and his wild companion Enkidu set off to do battle with the Great Goddess and, when Enkidu dies, Gilgamesh begins his search for immortal life. One of the earliest recorded legends, it is also one of the most powerful depictions of human grief.

"Lamentation seems very much to be a primal form of human expression," says Bral. "This is what the performance is about - becoming immersed in song."

Performed by a seven-strong, international ensemble in English, Polish, Hebrew, Aramaic, Latin, Greek and Farsi, Chronicles is said to be both cacaophonous and peaceful, chilling and inspiring. And though the process behind it may sound rigorously intellectual, there can be no doubting its ability to tug deeply at its audiences across barriers of language and culture.

"Of the shows we had last year Chronicles was probably the most sensational in terms of popularity," says Aurora Nova's David Lavender.

"It really was the number one show on the fringe. It produced visual images and sounds that were completely fresh and hypnotising and the movement almost sends you into a trance. You just won't have seen or heard anything like it before."

Tickets cost £14 or £10, call 01273 647100.