Hamlet Hail to the Thief at Barbican Theatre

RSC London season? Count us in. Hamlet in one hour and 40 minutes? Ambitious and definitely appealing. Radiohead’s experimental rock album Hail to the Thief adapted for the stage? We’re totally hooked. And so should audiences be, because this production is not a mere collation of the above elements. Thom Yorke, Christine Jones and Steven Hoggett have found the formula, set in a Gothic world, to weave sound, movement and recitation into a riveting, seamless whole, an enthralling show that shakes and sways.

Hamlet (Samuel Blenkin) mourns the death of his father, the King of Denmark, and is grief-stricken by his mother’s (Claudia Harrison) hasty remarriage to his uncle, Claudius (Paul Hilton). The ghost of his deceased father speaks to him of a traitor now sitting on the throne. Intent on finding out the truth, he organises a play to observe whether the new king betrays his guilt. Ophelia (Ami Tredrea), who had reciprocated Hamlet’s affections, is now rejected after a sudden change of heart by the delirious young prince and has lost her mind. Hamlet’s quest for truth and revenge is relentlessly turbulent.

Dark atmosphere, black colours and shades of grey make up the mood board throughout. This doesn’t mean no lights. In fact, shadows and light (by Jessica Hung Han Yun) are so well conceived that they deliver some grandiose lighting design. The show strikes an impactful chord from the start: after a haunting projection seeps into the first scene, there’s the entrance of young Hamlet, bathed from behind by a bright beam to the score of 2 + 2 = 5. It’s dramatic and agitated, and as Hilton waves from the raised platform, it vividly sets the scene and the style of the play.

Radiohead’s album is not simply glued onto or placed behind the script: a remix – whether in the tonal essence that slithers in the background or in the songs’ order – has been woven into the words (the script itself having undergone some necessary cuts), giving birth to a new fabric of sounds and lines. And that’s also the reason for condensing it into 100 minutes with no interval: an uninterrupted experience in a single act, like a rock concert.

There are some sequences of pure movement, such as bodily collisions and embraces. As with the music, Jess Williams’s choreography is not dance in the strict sense of the word, but the gestures and smooth ensemble movements express the characters and their spirit: segments of acting condensed into spirited physical interactions. The passionate, informal pas de deux between Hamlet and Ophelia, for example, sends the couple in circles and ends with the lovers locked in a magnetic hold.

And then there’s the acting. Samuel Blenkin begins with a slow and stern performance, before giving way to violent and eccentric, delirious rage. He is visceral, absorbed and absorbing. A fitting antagonist is the lanky Paul Hilton, who doesn’t hide his lascivious attentions to his queen and struts around his freshly acquired kingdom.

One possible reservation concerns the context: for those completely new to the Bard’s works, this production may push the boundaries of the narrative frame a little too far, meaning that the musical and movement links may not always be immediately apparent.

The themes of Shakespeare’s tragedy are here revisited and amplified, in a powerful theatrical discourse on family bonds, rebellion against corruption, the purity of love, the thirst for power, and much more. Far from being just a contemporary reinterpretation, this is a production that packs a punch, sending shivers through the audience with the force of its layered staging.

Cristiana Ferrauti
Photos: Manuel Harlan

Hamlet Hail to the Thief is at Barbican Theatre from 31^st October until 23^rd January 2027. For further information or to book, visit the theatre’s website here.