How Shakespeare and Radiohead spawned a masterpiece: Behind the creation of Hamlet Hail to the Thief

One of the most eagerly-anticipated stage shows of year is drawing fans of Shakespeare and Radiohead to the Barbican in their droves.

Co-created by Thom Yorke, Christine Jones, and Steven Hoggett, Hamlet Hail to the Thief is a frenetic and dystopian take on Shakespeare's masterpiece, in which the band’s 2003 album becomes part of the narrative, movement, and overall experience.

"It shouldn't work", the actor playing Hamlet told The Standard. Even the Radiohead frontman calls the piece "sacrilege" to Shakespeare's art.

The Standard got an exclusive behind-the-scenes look at the set and sat down with co-director Christine Jones and Samuel Blenkin, who plays the protagonist, to hear how the idea had been brewing for over 20 years.

Hamlet Hail to the Thief production at the Barbican Centre

Hamlet Hail to the Thief

The production

It's not the frontman's debut on the stage (figuratively speaking) either. He composed the music for the 2015 Broadway production of Harold Pinter's Old Times, but Hamlet Hail to the Thief certainly feels like his most involved.

“Thom was embroiled in every step of the production. He was in our rehearsals, our tech rehearsals, he worked on the music with Justin Levine [arranger] and Tom Brady [musical director] and was an incredible collaborator throughout the whole process”, co-creator and co-director Christine Jones told The Standard.

“He was determined that there not be needle-drop songs, that it was always being reimagined and pulled apart. Sometimes he took a piece of music that might be played on a piano and have it played on guitar, or have it played on a synth. So he was experimenting throughout the whole process.”

Thom Yorke, Tom Knowles and Justin Levine in rehearsal for Hamlet Hail to the Thief

Manuel Harlan

In fact, the concept has been long in the making. The idea came to Christine all the way back in 2003, when she saw Radiohead play the then-new Hail To the Thief album live, while she was simultaneously working on a production of Hamlet.

“I saw a Hail To the Thief concert in 2003. It was the first time I'd seen Radiohead live and it changed my DNA, it blew me away. The design, the music, the songs, their performances, it was a religious experience”, Christine said.

“I think I became infected by the album, but then coincidentally in the same year, I was designing a production of Hamlet and I often listen to music when I'm working. So I had the album on, my ears pricked up and I said, ‘wait a minute, what's happening?’

“There's this uncanny connection between the two, they collided in my mind and it was like a big bang moment. Then it took me maybe another 10 years or so to get the courage up to ask Thom if he was interested in investigating it. And once he expressed interest, that felt like permission.”

The sombre tale of Hamlet paired with the melancholic yet ethereal chimes and abrasive strings of Radiohead is indeed a match made in heaven.

“What we discovered quickly is there are [Hail To the Thief] lyrics which feel like they could have been written by Shakespeare, whether it's talking about the ‘witching hour’ or the ‘time being out of joints’ and having to ‘set the world to right’.

“There are these echoes that are embedded. The two pieces aren’t written to be connected, but clearly have all of these resonances. We often say that the play is haunted by the album and the album is haunted by the play.”

Radiohead performs newly-released Hail To the Thief in 2003

Getty Images

Samuel Blenkin, who plays the role of Hamlet and is a big Radiohead fan, recounts first working with Thom Yorke. “I remember coming in to do a little bit of singing and I walked into the studio and Thom was there. So I'm there singing one of his songs and he's playing the guitar.

“You don't forget those moments. You just bank them.

“I tried not to come across as too much of a mad, maniacal, nerdy fan and just let it happen. I feel very grateful to be here collaborating with people who I hold as my morning stars.”

The beauty of Hamlet Hail to the Thief’s appeal is that it brings together both Radiohead fans and Shakespeare enthusiasts.

One couple sat behind me were ranking their favourite tracks from Hail To the Thief, while the pair in front, clearly well-versed theatre goers, were startled by the eyebrow-raising length of the show.

Shakespeare’s Hamlet takes around four hours to perform. This is only 1 hour 50 minutes.

Trapped in a Christmas quarantine during the COVID-19 pandemic, Christine told us the writing process involved taking an “internal scalpel” and “distilling” Shakespeare’s script.

“I call it creating a spine line. I thought, ‘what if I started at the beginning of the album and go in order?’ Like the way some people put on Pink Floyd’s The Dark Side of the Moon with The Wizard of Oz.

“You start with 2 + 2 = 5, and I was like, ‘oh yeah, that works’. And then as you go through and you hear Sit Down. Stand Up, and how that speaks to Ophelia's family. Then Where I End and You Begin and how it speaks to and Hamlet's relationship with Rosencrantz and Guildenstern.

“By the end you're at A Wolf At the Door and even though we changed the order and how songs got used, we actually do begin with 2 + 2 = 5 and end with A Wolf At the Door. So there's a way that the album really does contain the play.”

Samuel Blenkin as Hamlet in Hamlet Hail to the Thief

Hamlet Hail to the Thief

The set

Glancing at the set, what stood out for me were the embedded recording booths, holding a live band on stage directly behind the actors, and the huge speakers looming over the audience.

The set feels claustrophobic, reminding me of the "shrinking" stage in Jo Mielziner's 1947 Broadway production of Tennessee William's A Streetcar Named Desire.

But this set doesn't shrink. Instead, Christine explains, that unnerving atmosphere comes from the set’s disturbing inspiration.

“Some of the first research for the set that we did was into recording studios and isolation chambers. We were looking at prisons and execution chambers. Famously, Hamlet refers to Denmark as a ‘prison’ and so that was a great departure point.

“But then specifically we were really interested in spaces that have music at the core. We came across the Reverberant Acoustic Test Facilities, a space that NASA created to test how sound effects both the humans and the spaceships that they send into space.”

Hamlet Hail to the Thief set (L), Reverberant Acoustic Test Facility (R)

Hamlet Hail to the Thief/WikiCommons

Beyond the stage, choosing the Barbican as the show’s home seems obvious. There's a reflection of Radiohead's wistful sound in the sobering aesthetic of the surrounding Brutalist architecture.

“The first day we walked into this space with Thom, he immediately started clapping and was so enlivened by the acoustics in this space. The circumstances are ideal for the delivery of this type of production,” the co-director said.

The Barbican in central London

See behind the scenes and watch our interview with Christian Jones and Samuel Blenkin in the video at the top of the page.