Radiohead frontman Thom Yorke is reworking the band's 2003 album Hail To The Thief for a bold new stage adaptation of William Shakespeare’s Hamlet.
Together with award-winning directors Steven Hoggett and Christine Jones, the “feverish new live experience” will fuse “theatre, music and movement”, and will see
Elsinore reimagined as a surveillance state, where Hamlet and Ophelia have their eyes opened to lies and corruption.
A synopsis for Hamlet Hail To The Thief adds, “Paranoia reigns and no one is spared a tragic unraveling.”
A “deconstructed” version of Radiohead's album, orchestrated by Yorke, will be performed live onstage by a cast of 20 musicians and actors, in what is described as a “frenetic distillation of Shakespeare's masterpiece.”
Thom Yorke says: “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.”
Director Christine Jones adds: “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.
“We’ve found that the play haunts the album, and the album haunts the play. Both reflect the internal disquiet and rage that result from despair – in particular despair arising from scrutiny of dominant power structures- whether within governments, communities, or families. The text and music probe us relentlessly to question what we are made of, and how to discern right from wrong.”
Hamlet Hail To The Thief will open at Factory International in Manchester from 27 April 27 to May 18, 2025, before transferring to the Royal Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon, where it runs from June 4 -28, 2025. Tickets go on sale on October 2.
