Text by William Shakespeare
Adapted by Christine Jones with Steven Hoggett
Music by Radiohead
Orchestrations by Thom Yorke
Factory International, AVIVA Studios, Manchester
27 Apr - 18 May 2025
Royal Shakespeare Company, Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon
4 - 28 June 2025
Directed by: Steven Hoggett & Christine Jones
Scenography: AMP feat. Sadra Tehrani
Arranger: Justin Levine
Music Supervision & Music Direction: Tom Brady
Choreography: Jess Williams
Sound Design: Gareth Fry
Projection Design: Will Duke
Lighting Design: Jessica Hung Han Yun
Costume Design: Lisa Duncan
Music Director: Tom Brady
Dramaturg & Text Consultant: Ayanna Thompson
Production Manager: Simon MacColl
Photo Credit: Manuel Harlan
A frenetic adaptation of Shakespeare’s Hamlet haunted by Radiohead’s Hail to the Thief
Shakespeare’s great tragedy and Radiohead’s seminal album collide for a feverish experience that fuses theatre, music, and movement.
In this frenetic distillation of Shakespeare's masterpiece, 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 revealed by ghosts and music. Paranoia reigns and no one is spared a tragic unravelling.
In this adaptation, music becomes an integral part of the narrative. Radiohead frontman Thom Yorke has reworked the band’s critically acclaimed album into a deconstructed score that illuminates the text and is performed by live musicians.
“The album has been deconstructed, the play dramatically abridged — with the action agitating between the two entities on stage.” —Polly Checkland Harding
The production is co-created by Yorke and celebrated directors, Steven Hoggett and Christine Jones. Hoggett is a founder member of Frantic Assembly whose other credits include Sweeney Todd, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime and Black Watch. Jones is the Creator and Artistic Director of Theater For One, and director of the immersive nightclub experience, Queen of the Night. Their projects together as choreographer and designer include Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, American Idiot and Let the Right One In.
Bringing together the innovation of Factory International and the incredible legacy of the Royal Shakespeare company, Hamlet Hail to the Thief is equally at home in a vast warehouse and an Elizabethan stage.
Brimming with energy, Hamlet Hail to the Thief distils Shakespeare’s great tragedy to its dark and glittering emotional core.
“Hamlet Hail to the Thief plays with both resonance and discord, the music at once echoing and disrupting the text.” —Polly Checkland Harding
