Radiohead frontman Thom Yorke is getting set to adapt the band’s 2003 album Hail to the Thief into a new orchestral production of William Shakespeare’s Hamlet, because of course he is.
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Thom Yorke, ever-expanding his musical footprint, will orchestrate a number of his Radiohead songs for a cast of 20 musicians and actors for stage performances next spring helmed by director Steven Hoggett and Christine Jones, with additional arrangements by Justin Levine. Titled Hamlet Hail to the Thief, the planned shows will feature the iconic Shakespeare text displayed alongside reworked selections from the 2003 release.
“This is an interesting and intimidating challenge!” Thom Yorke said of the 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.”
Director Christine Jones adds, “The first Radiohead concert I ever saw was the Hail to the Thief tour in 2003. It changed my DNA. Not long after, I was reading Hamlet and listening to the album. Paying attention to the lyrics, I became aware of how many songs from Hail to the Thief speak to the themes of the play. There are uncanny reverberances between the text and the album. For years I’ve wanted to see the play and album collide in a piece of theatre; eventually I shared the idea with Thom, who was intrigued. I wasn’t sure what we would make, but I knew I wanted to make it with Steven and continue experimenting and building on work we have done together over many years. 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—in particular despair arising from scrutiny of dominant power structures—whether within governments, communities, or families. The text and music probe us relentlessly to question what we are made of, and how to discern right from wrong.”
Hamlet Hail to the Thief will premiere at Aviva Studios in Manchester, UK, from April 27 through May 18, 2025 before transferring to the Royal Shakespeare Theatre, in Stratford Upon Avon, from June 4 to June 28.