Radiohead's Hamlet Hail to the Thief gets London premiere at the Barbican this October

From Manchester to Stratford to London

Hamlet Hail to the Thief, a stage production that sets Shakespeare's tragedy to Radiohead's sixth album, will have its London premiere at the Barbican Theatre this autumn. The show had its world debut at Aviva Studios in Manchester last year, followed by a run at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon. It is a co-production between Factory International and the Royal Shakespeare Company, co-created by Radiohead frontman Thom Yorke and directors Steven Hoggett and Christine Jones.

I'm into finally bringing Hamlet Hail to the Thief to London, and to the Barbican of all places! It is fascinating and very strange to me how this came to life and how it has worked. When it revealed itself to us over time I was shocked, having never had this kind of experience before.

The cast and creative team

Samuel Blenkin, known for Alien: Earth on FX and Bong Joon-ho's Mickey 17, reprises the title role of Hamlet. Ami Tredrea returns as Ophelia, who in this version also delivers the "to be or not to be" soliloquy. Paul Hilton plays Claudius and the Ghost, Claudia Harrison is Gertrude, and further returning cast include Alby Baldwin as Horatio, Brandon Grace as Laertes, Felipe Pacheco as Guildenstern, Romaya Weaver as Barnarda and Player Queen, and Marienella Phillips as Offstage Swing. Additional casting is still to be announced.

Yorke reworked and orchestrated the 2003 album's material, which is performed live on stage by a company of 20 musicians and actors. Shakespeare's text and Radiohead's music are set in dialogue throughout, with the lyrics reinforcing themes of grief, despair and paranoia in the play.

Critical reception and thematic resonance

In his four-star review for The Guardian, Mark Fisher praised Blenkin's performance as "startling," describing him as "a voice of a generation exasperated by the failures of his superiors" who has "as much to rail against the world about as Yorke and his band did in the aftermath of September 11 and the ascendancy of George W Bush." Pitchfork contributor Daniel Dylan Wray noted how the play's themes of paranoia and grief dovetailed naturally with the music.

This project really doesn't have any right to work, or make quite as much sense as it does. But it is an absorbing, heart-racing, and thrilling production that gracefully utilizes this music to co-exist within powerful dramatic depictions of grief, fear, madness, and death.

The album's title was a spin on the US presidential anthem Hail to the Chief, which Yorke had heard in reference to George W. Bush's disputed victory in Florida in the 2000 election. Recorded in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks and the subsequent War on Terror, Hail to the Thief draws on dystopian themes including Orwell-inspired lyrics and Brothers Grimm-style imagery.

Production timeline

The Barbican staging

Jones described bringing the play into the Barbican's brutalist space as feeling "fated." Hoggett noted that the Barbican is a venue where "the boundaries are blown apart as to what theatre might be." The production is presented by ATC Music Group, Vivek J. Tiwary for TEG+, and Nate Koch. In the process of reworking the album for the stage, Yorke listened to archive live recordings of the songs from 2003 to 2009. Newly mixed versions of those live recordings were released as a surprise Radiohead album tied to the production.