Thom Yorke is adapting Radiohead‘s pivotal 2003 album ‘Hail To The Thief’ for a new production of the iconic Shakespeare play Hamlet – find out more below.
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The upcoming production is being titled Hamlet Hail To The Thief, and will see Yorke collaborate with Tony and Olivier Award-winning directors Steven Hoggett and Christine Jones to create a contemporary adaptation of William Shakespeare’s Hamlet.
For the production, Yorke will “personally rework” and orchestrate ‘Hail To The Thief’ for a cast of over 20 musicians and actors that will be performed live during each show. The project is described as a “feverish new live experience, fusing theatre, music and movement”.
Artwork for ‘Hamlet Hail To The Thief’. Credit: Press
The official logline for Hamlet Hail To The Thief 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.”
The production will host its world premiere next year at Aviva Studios in Manchester on April 27 and will run through May 18 before moving over to the Royal Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford, where it will run from June 4 until June 28.
Tickets to Hamlet Hail To The Thief go on sale at 10am BST on October 2 via factoryinternational.org and rsc.org.uk.
Yorke said of Hamlet Hail To The Thief in a press statement: “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 Yorke performing with The Smile at London’s Alexandra Palace in March 2024. CREDIT: Samir Hussein/WireImage
Radiohead’s ‘Hail To The Thief’ marked the band’s sixth album and features songs like ‘2 + 2 = 5’, ‘Go To Sleep’, ‘There There’, ‘A Punchup At A Wedding’ and more. The band’s ninth and most recent studio album, ‘A Moon Shaped Pool’, was released back in 2016, while their last tour together was in 2018.
Earlier this month, the band’s bassist Colin Greenwood revealed that Radiohead have been back rehearsing together recently: “We did some rehearsals about two months ago in London, just to play the old songs. And it was really fun, had a really good time.”
Meanwhile, Radiohead side project The Smile – comprising Radiohead’s Thom Yorke and Jonny Greenwood and Sons Of Kemet drummer Tom Skinner – have announced their new album ‘Cutouts’ (out October 4) and have shared two new singles ‘Foreign Spies’ and ‘Zero Sum’.
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