Photos: Radiohead-Based HAMLET HAIL TO THE THIEF Gets World Premiere

Samuel Blenkin plays Hamlet, alongside Ami Tredrea as Ophelia, Paul Hilton as Claudius/Ghost, Claudia Harrison as Gertrude, Alby Baldwin as Horatio, Brandon Grace as Laertes, James Cooney as Rosencrantz, Felipe Pacheco as Guildenstern, Tom Peters as Polonius and Romaya Weaver as Gravedigger.  The cast is completed by Daniel Davids, Kieran Garlandand Marienella Phillips who are all Off-Stage Swings. The band includes Ed Begley, Tom Brady, Jenny Clifford, Joe Downard, Shane Forbes, Megan Hill, Tom Knowles and Adam Martin.

Hamlet Hail To The Thief is adapted from Shakespeare’s Hamlet by Christine Jones with Steven Hoggett, directed by Steven Hoggett and Christine Jones, with music by Radiohead,orchestrations by Thom Yorke, scenography by AMP featuring Sadra Tehrani, arrangements by Justin Levine, music supervision by Tom Brady, choreography by Jess Williams, sound design by Gareth Fry, projection design by Will Duke, lighting design by Jessica Hung Han Yun, costume design by Lisa Duncan, casting by Charlotte Sutton CDG for the RSC, with text consultancy and dramaturgy from Ayanna Thompson.

In this fast-paced distillation of the play, Shakespeare’s words and Radiohead’s album illuminate one another in thrilling new ways as the music becomes a critical part of the narrative.  Personally reworked by Yorke, the deconstructed album is performed live onstage by a cast of 20 musicians and actors.

Elsinore has a new ruler 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 in Denmark, gradually revealed by ghosts and music. Paranoia reigns and no one is spared a tragic unravelling.

Hail to the Thief (2003) is Radiohead’s sixth studio album with singles including ‘There There’, ‘2+2=5’ and ‘Go to Sleep’. Recorded in the wake of the September 11 attacks and the subsequent ‘War On Terror’, the album underscores a period of paranoia, fear and anxiety, using a striking mix of rock, unsettling sound experiments and lullaby piano ballad, with dystopian themes incorporating Orwell inspired lyrics and theatrical, Brothers Grimm style fables.

Photo Credit: Manuel Harlan

Hamlet Hail to the Thief

Brandon Grace, Samuel Blenkin and cast of Hamlet Hail to the Thief

Ami Tredrea and Brandon Grace

Alby Baldwin

Samuel Blenkin and Paul Hilton

Paul Hilton, Claudia Harrison and Brandon Grace

Hamlet Hail to the Thief

Samuel Blenkin and Claudia Harrison

Paul Hilton and Samuel Blenkin

Paul Hilton and the cast of Hamlet Hail to the Thief

Hamlet Hail to the Thief

Samuel Blenkin

Ami Tredrea

Samuel Blenkin and Alby Baldwin

Romaya Weaver and Samuel Blenkin

Alby Baldwin and Samuel Blenkin

Hamlet Hail to the Thief

Paul Hilton and Claudia Harrison

Romaya Weaver and James Cooney and the cast of Hamlet Hail to the Thief