Shakespeare meets Radiohead for new ‘Hamlet’ production

Radiohead frontman Thom Yorke is adapting the band’s 2003 album ‘Hail To The Thief’ for a new production of Shakespeare’s play “Hamlet”, which will host its world premiere next year at Aviva Studios in Manchester. 

The production is titled “Hamlet Hail To The Thief” and will see Yorke team up with Tony and Olivier Award-winning directors Steven Hoggett and Christine Jones to create a contemporary adaptation of Shakespeare’s play, described as a “feverish new live experience, fusing theatre, music and movement”.

Yorke will “personally rework” and orchestrate ‘Hail To The Thief’ for a cast of over 20 musicians and actors, and the music will be performed live during each show.  

The official logline for the show reads: “Elsinore has become a surveillance state 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.”

In this respect, the choice of Radiohead’s sixth studio album following ‘Amnesiac’ is an appropriate one. It is the band’s most overtly political album and chimes well with the themes of paranoia inherent to Shakespeare’s tragedy – which the Bard is thought have written between 1599 and 1602.

This upcoming version of the play also shares similar themes to ‘Hail To The Thief’, regarding moral corruption and decay. Yorke wrote many of the lyrics in response to the US election, George W. Bush’s win, the War on Terror, false patriotism and the rise of extremist conservatism. The title of the album itself is a play on the American presidential anthem ‘Hail to the Chief’ – and it’s no coincidence that album artist Stanley Donwood‘s cover art features words like “FEAR”, “OIL”, and “DANGER” in a collage of assorted words.

“This is an interesting and intimidating challenge!” Yorke said of the upcoming theatre project in a press release.  

“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.” 

Yorke previously described his frequently Orwellian lyrics on ‘Hail To The Thief’ as being inspired by “the general sense of ignorance and intolerance and panic and stupidity” that followed the 2000 election.  

Funny how some things don’t change even after two decades… 

Regarding the album, it was less warmly received than its predecessors ‘OK Computer’ and ‘Kid A’. The band continued to experiment with electronic rock, but the overall album was criticised for ebing overlong and lacking the creative verve of the ‘Kid A”https://www.euronews.com/”Amnesiac’ diptych. That said, fans of the early days of Radiohead were thrilled to have guitars back in the mix.

Overall, ‘Hail To The Thief’ is an underrated album that only gets better with time. It found a decent sonic middle ground, seamlessly merging alt rock with more experimental leanings, with the use of drum machines, sampling and Ondes Martenot marrying themselves well with more angry-sounding guitar work. While many music fans don’t rank it high within Radiohead’s discography, it feels singularly underappreciated.  

“Hamlet Hail to the Thief” will have its world premiere at Aviva Studios in Manchester, from 27 April 27 to 18 May 2025. It will then transfer to the Royal Shakespeare Theatre, in Stratford Upon Avon, from 4-28 June.

Tickets go on sale on 2 October via factoryinternational.org and rsc.org.uk.