Thom Yorke announces Hamlet Hail To The Thief theatre project: How to get tickets
The Radiohead and The Smile frontman has collaborated with theatre producers to combine the album with Shakespeare’s text
Thom Yorke has announced a new project called Hamlet Hail To The Thief, which will deconstruct and meld elements of Radiohead’s sixth album with William Shakespeare’s classic tragedy. Tickets for the performances will go on sale at 10am on Wednesday 2 October. Scroll to the bottom of this article for a detailed list of the show dates.
Created in collaboration with designer and director Christine Jones, and director and choreographer Steven Hoggett, this new adaptation will remould elements of Hail To The Thief to serve as a score for the play, and will be performed by live musicians and cast members.
The performances will take place first at Manchester’s Aviva Studios between Sunday 27 April and Sunday 18 May, then Stratford-Upon-Avon’s Royal Shakespeare Theatre between Wednesday 4 and Saturday 28 June. The cast list for the play is yet to be released.
With his usual creative use of grammar and paragraph breaks, Yorke wrote, ‘this is an interesting and intimidating challenge .. !
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.’
Originally released in 2003, Hail To The Thief was a return to the band’s gloom-prog roots after the more electronic focus of Kid A and Amnesiac. The album title was a reference to George W Bush’s disputed election victory in Florida in 2001, while songs like ‘2+2=5’, ‘Go To Sleep’ and ‘Wolf At The Door’ are steeped in a political paranoia that still feels relevant today.
Listen to ‘2+2=5’ below.
Hamlet Hail To The Thief’s 2025 UK performances:
Aviva Studios, Manchester, Sunday 27 April–Sunday 18 May
Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford-Upon-Avon, Wednesday 4–Saturday 28 June
Tickets for Hamlet Hail To The Thief go on sale at 10am on Wednesday 2 October.
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