Music · London
Thom Yorke's Radiohead-scored Hamlet Hail to the Thief Opens at the Barbican on 31 October
The RSC and Factory International production, with Thom Yorke reworking Hail to the Thief for a live cast, plays the Barbican from 31 October to 23 January.
'Hamlet Hail to the Thief' opens at the Barbican Theatre on 31 October and runs to 23 January 2027. The production, from the RSC and Factory International, had its world premiere at Aviva Studios, and the RSC says its first run there sold out. The RSC says Thom Yorke co-created the production; NME reports he personally reworked and orchestrated Radiohead's 2003 album for a cast of more than 20 musicians and actors.
The directors are Steven Hoggett and Christine Jones. Samuel Blenkin reprises Hamlet, with Ami Tredrea as Ophelia, Paul Hilton as Claudius and the Ghost, Claudia Harrison as Gertrude, Alby Baldwin as Horatio and Brandon Grace as Laertes, according to the RSC. NME describes it as a 'feverish new live experience, fusing theatre, music and movement'.
Yorke, on the link between the two: 'Hamlet was not in our minds when we made the record.'
Tickets are through hamlethailtothethief.com, or the RSC box office by phone. NME gives no prices; the Barbican's public sale opened in June.
A production that fuses a score, a cast and movement in one room is a lesson in how much of a live show is planned on paper before anyone is in the building: running orders, entrances, light cues. The same discipline is what our guide to shooting a music video in a studio is built on.