Radiohead take on Shakespeare with Hamlet Hail To The Thief

Hamlet and Radiohead are a dream combination for many theatre and music fans, two witnesses to contemporary malaise and vehicles for existential despair. And now the two are uniting in a new collaboration involving Thom Yorke. The full cast and creative team have been announced for the upcoming world premiere of Hamlet Hail to the Thief opening at Aviva Studios, home of Factory International, Manchester (27 April – 18 May 2025) before transferring to the Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford Upon Avon (4 June - 28 June 2025).

Radiohead frontman Yorke, and celebrated directors, Steven Hoggett and Christine Jones have joined forces for this adaptation of Shakespeare’s Hamlet which is ‘haunted by Radiohead’s celebrated 2003 album Hail to the Thief.‘. The idea is that Shakespeare’s words and Radiohead’s album will illuminate one another as the music becomes a critical part of the narrative. Personally reworked by Yorke, the deconstructed album will be performed live onstage by a cast of 20 musicians and actors.

The set-up is: ‘Elsinore has a new ruler 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.’.

Writing on Instagram, Yorke wrote:. “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.”- Thom.

Samuel Blenkin (Black Mirror, Netflix; upcoming Mickey 17, Warner Bros directed by Bong Joon-Ho; upcoming Alien: Earth, FX produced by Ridley Scott) will play Hamlet, alongside Ami Tredrea (London Tide and The Crucible, both National Theatre; Prime Target, Apple TV; Black Mirror, Netflix) as Ophelia.

Paul Hilton (Olivier nominated for An Enemy of the People, West End; Juno and the Paycock, West End; Slow Horses, Apple TV; The Crown, Netflix) will play Claudius/ Ghost and Claudia Harrison (Princess Anne in The Crown, Netflix; Humans, Channel 4; The Painkiller, Lyric Belfast) will play Gertrude.

The band will include Ed Begley, Tom Brady, Joe Downard, Shane Forbes, Megan Hill, Tom Knowles and Adam Martin. Also announced is choreographer Jess Williams (an associate director and creative practitioner at Frantic Assembly whose other credits include Nye, National Theatre; Richard III, Shakespeare Globe and Lost and Found, Factory International).

Hail to the Thief (2003) is Radiohead’s sixth studio album with singles including ‘There There’, ‘2+2=5’ and ‘Go to Sleep’. Recorded in the wake of the September 11 attacks and the subsequent ‘War On Terror’, the album underscores a period of paranoia, fear and anxiety, using a striking mix of rock, unsettling sound experiments and lullaby piano ballad, with dystopian themes incorporating Orwell inspired lyrics and theatrical, Brothers Grimm style fables.