‘Hamlet Hail To The Thief’ review: Thom Yorke masterminds a stunning collision of worlds
A reworked score of Radiohead’s sixth album backs an adaptation that even Shakespeare’s great tragedy has never seen the likes of before.
Anything resembling a comfort zone has never really applied to Thom Yorke. Having changed the very landscape of modern day music with Radiohead, he could easily be content in riding festival headline slots and huge stadium tours once a decade. Yet throughout his career, such major accolades have often felt like a byproduct of his own fierce creative drive.
From an array of striking solo releases through to fully-fledged side projects in Atoms For Peace or more recently The Smile, he’s a man that’s always opted for innovation over nostalgia. The latest example of this comes with the truly ambitious ‘Hamlet Hail to the Thief’, an adaptation co-assembled alongside celebrated directors Steven Hoggett and Christine Jones.
The play, launching tonight inside Factory International’s Aviva Studios is billed as a unique live experience that brings Shakespeare’s great tragedy and Radiohead’s seminal album together for an experience fusing theatre, music and movement. Despite being written a good four hundred years apart, the parallels between Hamlet and Hail to The Thief are strikingly clear.
Radiohead, after all, penned the 2003 album in the wake of 9/11 and the war on terror that followed, resulting in one of the band’s most haunting records to date. That sense of unease looms large tonight, even as crowds filter into the venue, with smoke swirling down from the brutalist and minimal stage production graced only by an array of suspended black jackets.
Although Yorke is no stranger to score work, having penned the horror score for 2018’s horror ‘Suspiria’, it’s clear this was an entirely different proposition. Speaking on the task of revisiting the album, he described it as both an ‘interesting and intimidating challenge’. Rather than fitting the music to the performance, he instead strived to pair the album’s themes with the underlying grief of the story that’s been told for generations, using the music as a presence in the room.
That’s not to say the album doesn’t have its moments centre-stage throughout the night, that’s clear from the off as the cast launch themselves onstage with explosive choreography to the thrashing climax of ‘2 + 2 = 5’. The biggest triumph of the night though is just how well this album complements the dialogue onstage, with Yorke drawing and building on album hooks with illuminating nuance and subtlety.
Even though this is a performance that’s clearly been years in the making, refreshingly, the production never loses its sense of impulsivity or humility. As Hamlet – played by Samuel Blenkin (Black Mirror, Mickey 17) delivers his infamous and rousing lines backed by ominous notes: “You cannot, sir, take from me anything that I will not more willingly part – except my life,” he quips to great laughter before departing “you tedious old fucking fool!”
The choreography also brings light through the overriding darkness. As the play flows through the acts, movement plays a central role as the actors onstage deliver flowing and cartoonish moves that are clearly inspired by that of Yorke himself. Though the narrative and language can be daunting to someone coming in with little context on the play, it’s in such moments that anyone will be able to connect with the immersive beauty on show.
When the score itself does take the limelight throughout, the live band who are housed within the impressive production are illuminated through the mists. Much like the play itself, the songs capture just about every kind of human emotion as they toil like turbulent lullabies – with highlights from the truly disarming ‘There, There’ jutting out. The actors also deliver stunning solo vocal performances, with Hamlet delivering a soul-striking rendition of ‘Scatterbrain’.
Following a thrilling and bloody finale, the standing ovation that follows tonight has felt inevitable throughout this gripping performance. The biggest testament to Yorke and his co-writers that these worlds collide so seamlessly, as if they were always meant to be together. Though incredibly ambitious, there’s a sky-scraping beauty within this production that still manages to breathe new life into a tale as old as time.
‘Hamlet Hail to the Thief’ is a co-production between the Royal Shakespeare Company and Factory International, running at Aviva Studios Home of Factory International, Manchester until 18 May before transferring to the Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford Upon Avon from 4 June – 28 June.