Radiohead frontman Thom Yorke is teaming up with the Royal Shakespeare Theatre for a new production of William Shakespeare's Hamlet, inspired/shaped by Radiohead's 2003 album Hail To The Thief.
Described as a "fast-paced distillation" of the play, producers have said Shakespeare's words and Radiohead's album "illuminate one another" as Radiohead's music becomes a central part of the play's narrative. The play is said to have been "personally reworked by Yorke." The music will be performed live onstage by a cast of 20 musicians and actors.
"This is an interesting and intimidating challenge," Yorke said of the production. "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."
Deadline
The show—awkwardly titled Hamlet Hail To The Thief—will run in May 2025 at the Aviva Studios in Manchester, then transfer to the Royal Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford, where it will run throughout June that same year.
Previously:
• Radiohead's Creep sung by 1600 people
