Radiohead's Hamlet Fusion Opens at Barbican Oct‑Jan
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- Hamlet Hail to the Thief will open at the Barbican theatre in London from 31 October to 23 January, marking its London debut after a world premiere in Manchester and a run at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford‑upon‑Avon.
- Thom Yorke co‑created the production, re‑working Radiohead’s 2003 album “Hail to the Thief” for live performance and releasing newly mixed live recordings as a surprise Radiohead album last summer.
- Samuel Blenkin returns as Hamlet, with the Guardian’s Mark Fisher calling his performance “startling” and a voice of a generation exasperated by superiors.
- Steven Hoggett says the Barbican is a space where theatrical boundaries are “blown apart”, while co‑director Christine Jones notes the play and album speak urgently to today’s convulsed world.
- Paul Hilton reprises Claudius, joined by Claudia Harrison as Gertrude and Ami Tredrea as Ophelia, who in this version asks “to be or not to be”.
- Factory International co‑produces the show with the Royal Shakespeare Company, joining a contemporary arts venue with a classic theatre institution.
Why it matters: Staging the Radiohead‑Hamlet fusion at the Barbican expands the Royal Shakespeare Company’s repertoire to a younger, music‑savvy audience, while the surprise live‑album release gives fans fresh recordings and underscores the production’s relevance to contemporary political anxieties and signals a growing trend of cross‑medium collaborations that can draw theatergoers into pop‑culture narratives.
