Radiohead's Thom Yorke has teamed up with scenographer and director Christine Jones and choreographer/movement director Stephen Hoggett for a new stage adaptation of William Shakespeare's Hamlet.

Dubbed Hamlet Hail to the Thief, the production uses reworkings of tracks from Radiohead's 2003 album to "illuminate" Shakespeare's words. In the new retelling, we're told that Elsinore (Helsingør) "has become a surveillance state and hectic runs in the blood of its citizens," and the story "centres on Hamlet and Ophelia’s awakening to the lies and corruption in Denmark, gradually revealed by ghosts and music."

With new orchestrations by Yorke and arrangements by musical theatre composer Justin Levine, the Hail to the Thief songs will be performed live onstage by a cast of 20 musicians and actors. In a press release, Yorke describes the production as "an interesting and intimidating challenge," saying:

“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.”

Adds Jones:

“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."

Jones previously worked with Radiohead and their longtime collaborator Stanley Dogwood on a digital project based on the band's Kid A and Amnesia albums. She and Hoggett have also worked on productions with Imogen Heap (Harry Potter and the Cursed Child), Green Day (American Idiot), and David Byrne (SOCIAL!). In 2022, Jones was involved in a Broadway adaptation of Macbeth with original music from Gaelynn Lea and starring Daniel Craig in the title role.

Hamlet Hail to the Thief will run from 27 April to 18 May 2025 at Manchester's Aviva Studios and at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre in Shakespeare's birthplace of Stratford-upon-Avon from 4 to 28 June. Tickets for the production go on sale on Wednesday next week (2 October) at 10am.