Hamlet Hail to the Thief
On Saturday June 7th 2025, I went to see a production of Hamlet co-directed by Christine Jones, Steven Hoggett, with music orchestrated by Thom Yorke from Radiohead's album Hail to the Thief, at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon. In this staging, the three laughed at the the suggestion of 'a Hamlet for our times' as a title - despite its striking similarities to the current state of our society, this is far more timeless and deeply meaningful in all its themes. The production is energetic and frantic, engaging strongly in themes of grief and paranoia that contribute to corruption, described by one of the cast members as 'like being thrown down a staircase.' There is a perfect blend of naturalistic Shakespearean acting, raw and almost dance-like physical theatre, and masterfully rearranged music. It is neither a Radiohead musical or album playthrough, contemporary dance show, or a soliloquy-driven and indigestible play - each element compliments the other perfectly without overpowering. It all results in a truly unbelievable performance.
Hamlet
Hamlet's father is murdered by his uncle, Claudius, who promptly takes the Danish throne and marries his mother, Gertrude. The ghost of his father appears to him, revealing what has happened and asking Hamlet to take revenge. He feigns madness to buy time to plot and decides to put on a play showing Claudius killing his brother, and taking his horrified reaction as evidence for his guilt. Hamlet's potential wife, Ophelia, worries for him, and after he accidentally murders her father, Polonius, instead of the King, she falls into insanity and commits suicide. Hamlet is sent to England to be executed with his friends, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, but escapes, leaving them to die. Upon his return to Denmark, Laertes, brother to Ophelia and son of Polonius, challenges Hamlet to a duel, in which the King also plots to kill him with a poisoned drink. In the last flurry of events, they duel - Gertrude dies after drinking the poison, Hamlet kills Claudius and then Laertes, before dying, wounded, after the rest of them. He tells his friend, Horatio, "I am dead, / Thou livest. Report me and my cause aright / To the unsatisfied." This tragedy is a cautionary tale of madness and paranoia, deception and appearance, and corruption, commenting on the state of our society, as a result of the characters of those running it. It brings in themes of sexuality, politics, and misogyny. The decay of Hamlet's mind and morals show that humans can change in the face of adversity, in this case the desire to revenge, or for power or ambition, and this theme of deterioration extends to the omnipresence of death and unease in the play. In this way, the play asks what someone's identity is. Hamlet struggles to find this, far from eager to become a murderer to avenge his father, lacking love or a connection from his mother or Ophelia, and grappling with his increasingly immoral actions as the tragedy draws to the inevitable ending.
Hail to the Thief
Hail to the Thief was released in 2003, and is regarded as the band's 'political album' as it was written around the time of George W Bush's election, as he began to unfold the war on terror. The title itself is a play on the presidential anthem, 'Hail to the Chief,' a grand fanfare of military drums and brass synonymous with American jingoism. Yorke took phrases from political discourse and combined them with fairy tales and elements from children's stories, blended with Orwellian euphemisms. The very first song is a clear reference - 2+2=5. The title was chosen partly in response to Bush, as well as 'the rise of doublethink (a 1984 idea of simultaneously holding contradicting views as fully true, a tool used by the Party to manipulate reality) and general intolerance and madness ... like individuals were totally out of control of the situation ... a manifestation of something not really human'. As a new father, Yorke was scared of the world his children were entering, of violence and control. The album cover appears to be a pile of colourful signs, inscribed with attention-grabbing words and goods, and continues the theme of discontent with Western leadership He said that this production gave him a much needed opportunity to rework the album - it had 'all turned to shit.' He also importantly added that he thinks it is a 'death knell for any piece of work to be described as political, and then be concerned forevermore having to contextualise that.' This allowed themes of fear and darkness to be dug up that are more fundamental and not only characterised by a brief period of history. Yorke doesn't want all his work to be reactive to what is going on, because 'these fucking morons and idiots and sychophants and enablers will be gone soon, and we will want to forget about it.'
Some of the thematic similarities are difficult to miss. Both are stories of a corrupt and frightening state, filled with unease and madness. Although Yorke first said the play was 'sacrosanct' and untouchable, 20 years later he has returned to tackle it and renew his own album. Jones is a multidisciplinary theatre designer and director, who has done lots of set work in many productions, and Hoggett was a co-founder of the physical theatre company Frantic Assembly. Lots of the play and album are brilliantly deconstructed, taking the focus off of long monologues or individual songs, making it 'lean.' The songs use select lyrics and mood to make the action even more impactful, and the physical theatre simply adds another dimension to the characters that we wouldn't see otherwise, expressed through movement alone.
Horatio's final monologue with A Wolf at the Door is too good and a direct address to the audience - the speech is edited slightly to emphasise the cautionary sentiment. Ophelia's madness, told through Sail to the Moon, is haunting and brings in themes of religion and mortality, and evokes a unique fear for her. The famous To be or Not to Be is delivered to Ophelia in a stark column of heavily hazed light that they move through, isolating action and highlighting Hamlet's fluid change of ideas from fear, to madness, to aggression shown brilliantly by facial expression and speed of movement, as well as dynamics and tone. Claudius's physical sequence that shows him grasping for cloaks and robes, held suspended in the air by deft lifts as he tries to gain more power, that results in his decay, is more illustrative than any dialogue. The finale is brilliantly choreographed and scored to be frantic, animalistic, and serves as a heart-racing warning to the vices of corruption and deterioration. Every scene is amazing.
This is the brief trailer of the production by the RSC. In it, we're given an idea of the set, costume and lighting, as well as a small sample of the disturbing score that opens the play. The projection of the ghosts are one of the most powerful effects of the play.
Forgetting momentarily about the unforgettable physical theatre sequences that in my opinion, are the most unique and impactful part of this production, I am going to write about Hamlet's 'To Be or not To Be' monologue. Samuel Blenkin, who plays Hamlet, enters the upstage left through a door in the back wall. There is a clear cut column of light that bisects the stage diagonally from the door to Ophelia, played by Ami Tredrea. The haze is particularly heavy and by using traditional down lighting from frennels as well as birdies from the sides of the stage, our view was completely restricted to the almost 2 dimensional image. Despite the thrust staging, we could no longer see the audience on the other side. Blenkin walks incredibly slowly, almost shuffling along. His gait seems almost childlike and his stare is vacant, with his mouth slightly hanging and his eyes wide and twitchy, focused on Ophelia. His trunk and shoulders are quite tense and his knees almost don't bend, moving with flat feet, almost frozen in thought at a blend between a level 6 to 7 (in his fear) of tension that simultaneously feels relaxed or sleepy (possibly playing into the idea of sleep and death being similar, as he really appears to be sleepwalking in a way, in a trance of madness). The audience is instantly aware of a real madness through this unsettling movement that is quite frightening and is hugely tense. The haze follows his movement in a way, curling clouds of smoke following behind. The space between them is slowly closed down, but by starting the address a long distance apart, we see that their relationship has fallen apart and this puts the audience on edge. As the monologue goes on, Blenkin masterfully switches from this vulnerable insane state to increasingly paranoid, before turning aggressive. Once he has reached Ophelia, he turns back, and the pace of the scene increases. He speaks faster with more determination, using his lips more in speech to enunciate words and removing the soft tone he started the scene with, whilst shutting his mouth between lines but maintaining an unsettling stare. Through this monologue, we see Hamlet almost try and forge a new identity for himself - one where he isn't loved by Ophelia or Gertrude, may have gone mad, and wants revenge. This is made so clear to the audience through this changing physicality, which creates fear and tension (as to what Hamlet might plot to do next) - Claudius assigns himself to a similar sentiment with "It shall be so. / Madness in great ones must not unwatch'd go." Blenkin begins to almost constantly turn around, led by his shoulders spinning the rest of his body. The audience as a result, is shown all sides of his face and body, but more importantly sees the increasingly frantic movements, which creates tension, like he may just shoot off in any direction. This adds to the themes of paranoia perpetuated within the play and the album, particularly in this tragic hero, similar to the plot of Macbeth for example. Hamlet appears to be constantly addressing or looking towards different parts of the stage which makes him unpredictable and feel dangerous. By the end of the monologue, Blenkin has also most noticeably completely evolved his gait - he is now forcibly stomping around the stage, daring to exit the beam of light as he gains more confidence. We see how Hamlet totally changes over a single soliloquy.
pre play
focus on corruption of state as this is where play and album crossover in themes
revenge as a focal point too possibly
industrial set, radiating coats with smoke - eerie, theme of decay possibly
band trapped in boxes in the stage
lots of smoke
eerie opening music, strings coming in later and slowly gets more structure
during play
absolutely ridiculous physical theatre and monologue after - non naturalistic
empire yasises the species with a very actuation and f different movements and laps
theme of decay and rot of the state, misogyny towards feet de and masculine needs for hamlet
theme of a hosts and super natural and al paranoia and fear and madness
controlling women and their buexrigicarioj of women - power !!!
hymn hands sequence - repeated action of flipping hands out (@793 drying them of water)
boost and voiceover and projection is fucking terrifying )
he's gon mead in real life - what is the line between deceiving insanity and being mad in realurt
dad of his son melia thinks that hamlet goes mad because he is horny and not because of the guost
hamlet reading the plague by albert camus - maybe he is having a bit of a existential crisis - crazy and wants revenge - where do you draw this line between strategy and efficiency and obsession and pure insanity
i will eat yiu alive don't - box in the middle, two characters at a time come in and interacte - one is always weaker than the other and needs comforting - how they do this revels their entire character these small , no dialogue physical interactions with varying degrees of realism tell so much their character
ros and guil have a players !!!
ros and guil are his best mates
women controlled, have no say and are seen as stupid. few men in tyrannical charge, very topical. people blindly follow
fender amps as boxes
slapped him out of the crazy hazy column light spread i tried the stage. ophelia gets a wash spot
monologue was so good sleep is death, and madness and fear and love it is soo good. king claudius and the dad of ophelia completely ignore her
claudius and hamlet fighting was excellent, how do they show this animalistic and masculine confidence and conflict. physical was so good A touching their heads and slapping and wrestling pphealiaband hamlet fall out of love with madness.
players with i will was so good
coloured led light strips on the gorund
hamlet gets aggressive and so confident in himself and his own revenge - he gets angry and ready to go
claudius is sleazy and wants no guilt (even though he feels it) and all the rewards of murder - terrible giy
mother feels guilty at the end - goes from quite assertive to breaking down. we see the ghost lots as an influence and the mother shows that anyone can be corrupted by the state and by greed.
morality
desperation to kill claudius resulted in poloniuses death
laertes values honour but still wants to murder
claudius physical sequence was fucking awesome - people keep the robes from him (be your accident , waaaaiting, waaaaiiiting , to hiiiide) and lifts to push him floating towards the robes was amazing .
sail to the moon as ophelia goes mad and she actually sings - so fucking good
the clapping song was excellent and uses the repeated device,
ophelia going mad was too good. fall off of the blocks and then flirting her up. so good. hamlet turns from this innocent man to a mad wreck to a bloody and revengeful, cunning but obsessed and insane against the corruption of the state. no one will stand in his way.
claudius manipulates laertes through his anger to help him for his own good. corruption
the final fight was too excellent, raindrops song was mental, pure rage destroying everything
final horatio monologue with wolf at the door was too powerful, a direct address to the audience to remember the exact message that revenge and corruption can end up with literally an entire stage of dead people (represented by the coats and projection) was too good. wolf at the door (this very thing is creeping up on us in our own world) was too good.