Hail to the Thief: Thom Yorke to soundtrack new version of Hamlet with Radiohead album

Your support helps us to tell the story

Support Now

Find out moreClose

My recent work focusing on Latino voters in Arizona has shown me how crucial independent journalism is in giving voice to underrepresented communities.

Your support is what allows us to tell these stories, bringing attention to the issues that are often overlooked. Without your contributions, these voices might not be heard.

Every dollar you give helps us continue to shine a light on these critical issues in the run up to the election and beyond

Eric Garcia

Washington Bureau Chief

Thom Yorke is reworking Radiohead’s 2003 album Hail to the Thief for a new version of Shakespeare’s Hamlet that plans to fuse theatre, music and movement.

Hamlet Hail to the Thief, which will open in Manchester next spring, will be performed by a cast of musicians and actors and run at Aviva Studios from 27 April to 18 May.

It will then transfer to the Royal Shakespeare theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon from 4 to 28 June.

Yorke said that the concept for the show presented him with “an interesting and intimidating challenge” to see how the music “collides with the action and the text” of one of Shakespeare’s best-loved tragedies.

“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,” he said in a statement.

“Ghosting one against the other.”

Christine Jones, who will co-direct with Steven Hoggett, said that hearing Hail to the Thief for the first time “changed my DNA” and that many of the album’s tracks “speak to the themes of the play”.

“There are uncanny reverberances between the text and the album,” she said. “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.”

Recorded in the wake of the 11 September attacks, Hail to the Thief is underscored by themes of paranoia, fear and anxiety, featuring references to George Orwell’s dystopian novel Nineteen Eighty-Four, dark fables and fairytales by the Brothers Grimm, and Dante’s Inferno.

The album’s title is a spin on the anthem for the US president, “Hail to the Chief”, which Yorke heard in reference to George W Bush’s disputed victory in Florida in the 2000 election.

Tickets for both the Manchester and Stratford-upon-Avon shows go on sale on 2 October 2024.