Radiohead frontman Thom Yorke is collaborating with co-directors Steven Hoggett and Christine Jones on a new production of Shakespeare's Hamlet that will feature music from the English rock band's album Hail to the Thief, performed live by Yorke and a cast of musicians and actors.
Hamlet Hail to the Thief will get a world premiere at Manchester's Aviva Studios April 27-May 18, 2025, with an opening night set for May 7, before transferring to Stratford Upon Avon's Royal Shakespeare Theatre June 4-28. The Stratford opening will be June 12.
The production, which will feature a deconstructed version of the Radiohead album reworked by Yorke, is being co-produced by Factory International, which is hosting the Manchester run; the Royal Shakespeare Company; and ATC Experience. Nate Koch and Vivek J. Tiwary are producing for ATC. Shakespeare's text has been adapted by Jones with Hoggett for the production.
A cast of 20 musicians and actors is to be announced.
“This is an interesting and intimidating challenge!," says Yorke in a statement. "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."
“The first Radiohead concert I ever saw was the Hail to the Thief tour in 2003," says two-time Tony winner Jones. "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. ... 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.”
"To communicate this expansive narrative, we have found it illuminating and inspiring to look to movement, text, lighting, sound, and music to achieve the complexities of the storytelling," adds Hoggett, a five-time Tony nominee. "We hope that bringing such elements into play means that anyone seeing their first-ever Shakespeare will find a variety of 'ways in' to enjoy and appreciate what a spectacular play this is. We are thrilled to have found two venues with Aviva Studios, home of Factory International, and Royal Shakespeare Company that complement each other so well. Both are at the very forefront of asking questions about what theatre can be and are two perfect homes for this show."
The production will feature orchestrations by 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, lighting design by Jessica Hung Han Yun, costume design by Lisa Duncan, and text consultancy and dramaturgy by Ayanna Thompson. Casting is by Charlotte Sutton.
Tickets for both runs be on sale beginning October 2 at 10 AM BST at FactoryInternational.org and RSC.org.uk.
