Shakespeare and Radiohead collide for new stage show Hamlet Hail to the Thief

William Shakespeare’s Hamlet is to be combined with Radiohead’s album Hail to the Thief for an unusual new stage show.

Hamlet Hail to the Thief was the brainchild of theatre director Christine Jones, who came up with the idea after noticing the play and album shared similar themes of moral corruption, decay, and dysfunctional government.

The show will receive its world premiere in Manchester in April before transferring to Stratford-Upon-Avon in June.

Radiohead’s Thom Yorke, who is re-working the 2003 album for the show, described the project as an “interesting and intimidating challenge”.

Jones said the idea occurred to her shortly after the album’s release, while listening to it and reading the play at the same time.

“Paying attention to the lyrics, I became aware of how many songs from Hail to the Thief speak to the themes of the play,” she said.

Producers said the “dynamic and frenetic” new version of Hamlet will see Shakespeare’s words “illuminated” by the British band’s music.

Hail to the Thief will be deconstructed and re-worked by Yorke and performed live by a cast of around 20 musicians and actors.

The resulting show is described as “a feverish new live experience, fusing theatre, music and movement”.

It will play for three weeks at Manchester’s Aviva Studios, home of Factory International, from 27 April 2025.

The show will then transfer to the Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford Upon Avon, where it will play from 4-28 June.

In a statement to BBC News, 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.”

The original Hamlet has been adapted for the new production by Jones alongside Steven Hoggett. The pair will also direct.

Organisers said the “fast-paced distillation” of the play would see Radiohead’s music become a critical part of the narrative.

Hail to the Thief was Radiohead’s sixth studio album and featured the singles There There, Go To Sleep and 2+2=5.

Recorded in the aftermath of the 9/11 terrorist attack in New York, the album reflected a period of fear and political turmoil.

A rock album at its core, Hail to The Thief was also somewhat experimental, and explored dystopian themes with Orwell-inspired lyrics.

“I was listening to a lot of political programs on BBC Radio 4,” Yorke told XFM about the writing of the record.

“I found myself – during that mad caffeine rush in the morning, as I was in the kitchen giving my son his breakfast – writing down little nonsense phrases, those Orwellian euphemisms that [the British and American governments] are so fond of.”

Jones said the first time she saw Radiohead live was on the Hail to The Thief tour in 2003.

“It changed my DNA,” she recalled. “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 [Hoggett] and continue experimenting and building on work we have done together over many years.”

She added: “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.”

Set in Elsinore, which has become a surveillance state, the play centres on Hamlet and Ophelia’s awakening to the lies and corruption in Denmark, gradually revealed by ghosts and music.

Organisers said the show’s cast would be announced in the coming months.