Radiohead frontman Thom Yorke will collaborate with directors Steven Hoggett and Christine Jones on a new version of Shakespeare's Hamlet to première at Manchester's Aviva Studios in April 2025 before transferring to the Royal Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford Upon Avon in June.
Hamlet Hail to the Thief brings together Shakespeare's play and Radiohead's 2003 album Hail to the Thief, reworked by Yorke to be played live by a cast of 20 musicians and actors. Recorded in the wake of the September 11 attack in the US and the subsequent 'war on terror', this sixth studio album from the band included the singles "There There", "2+2=5" and "Go to Sleep".
Frantic Assembly founder member Hoggett and Tony and Olivier Award-winner Jones have previously collaborated as choreographer and designer on Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, American Idiot and Let the Right One In.
Elsinore has become a surveillance state and hectic runs in the blood of its citizens. Hamlet Hail To The Thief centres on Hamlet and Ophelia’s awakening to the lies and corruption in Denmark, gradually revealed by ghosts and music. Paranoia reigns and no one is spared a tragic unraveling.
Yorke said, “this is an interesting and intimidating challenge! Adapting the original music of Hail to The Thief for live performance with the actors on stage to tell this story that is forever being told, using its familiarity and sounds, pulling them into and out of context, seeing what chimes with the underlying grief and paranoia of Hamlet, using the music as a ‘presence’ in the room, watching how it collides with the action and the text. Ghosting one against the other.”
Jones added, “the first Radiohead concert I ever saw was the Hail to the Thief tour in 2003. It changed my DNA. Not long after, I was reading Hamlet and listening to the album. Paying attention to the lyrics, I became aware of how many songs from Hail to the Thief speak to the themes of the play. There are uncanny reverberances between the text and the album. For years I've wanted to see the play and album collide in a piece of theatre; eventually I shared the idea with Thom, who was intrigued. I wasn't sure what we would make, but I knew I wanted to make it with Steven and continue experimenting and building on work we have done together over many years.”
Hamlet Hail To The Thief is adapted from Shakespeare’s Hamlet by Christine Jones with Steven Hoggett, directed by Steven Hoggett and Christine Jones, with music by Radiohead, orchestrations by Thom Yorke, arrangements by Justin Levine, set design by AMP Collective featuring Sadra Tehrani, sound design by Gareth Fry, music supervision by Tom Brady, video design by Will Duke, light design by Jessica Hung Han Yun, costume design by Lisa Duncan, text consultancy and dramaturgy from Ayanna Thompson and casting by Charlotte Sutton CDG for the RSC.
It will run at Aviva Studios in Manchester from 27 April to 18 May and at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon from 4 to 28 June 2025.