Radiohead frontman Thom Yorke is collaborating with directors Steven Hoggett and Christine Jones on “Hamlet Hail to the Thief,” a new theater adaptation of Shakespeare’s tragedy incorporating music from Radiohead’s 2003 album “Hail to the Thief.”
Described as a “feverish new live experience,” the show will feature Shakespeare’s text illuminated by Radiohead’s album, reworked by Yorke and performed live by a cast of 20 musicians and actors.
The adaptation reimagines Elsinore as a surveillance state. The plot centers on Hamlet and Ophelia’s awakening to the lies and corruption in Denmark, gradually revealed by ghosts and music. The production promises a world where paranoia reigns and no one is spared a tragic unraveling.
Hoggett, an Olivier Award-winning choreographer and director, is known for his work on “The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime,” “Black Watch,” and “Harry Potter and the Cursed Child.” Jones, a Tony and Olivier Award-winning theater artist, has designed sets for “Harry Potter and the Cursed Child,” “American Idiot” and “Spring Awakening.”
The creative team includes Hoggett and Jones as directors, with music by Radiohead, orchestrations by Yorke, arrangements by Justin Levine, and set design by AMP Collective featuring Sadra Tehrani.
“Hamlet Hail to the Thief” is co-produced by Factory International, the Royal Shakespeare Company, and ATC Experience, Nate Koch and Vivek J. Tiwary for TEG+. Casting will be announced at a later date.
Yorke called the project “an interesting and intimidating challenge,” noting they’ll be “using the music as a ‘presence’ in the room, watching how it collides with the action and the text.”
Jones, who first conceived of combining the play and album, said, “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.”
Hoggett added: “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.”
The production will have its world premiere at Aviva Studios in Manchester from April 27 to May 18, 2025, before transferring to the Royal Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon from June 4-28, 2025.