The Royal Shakespeare Company has announced that Placebo will compose the original music for its 2026 production of The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui, marking the band’s first major collaboration with a theatre company.
Starring double Olivier Award winner Mark Gatiss in the title role, the production will run at the Swan Theatre in Stratford upon Avon from 11 April to 30 May 2026, with press night on 21 April.
Directed by Seán Linnen in a new version by Stephen Sharkey, the production presents Brecht’s satirical gangster drama set in the criminal underworld of 1930s Chicago. The play explores the rise of a power hungry small time crook, offering a biting parody of Hitler’s ascent to power.
The collaboration coincides with Placebo’s 30th anniversary year. The band, led by Brian Molko and Stefan Olsdal, have sold 14 million albums worldwide and are known for their boundary pushing approach to alternative rock.
Brian Molko and Stefan Olsdal said:
“We are very honoured and excited to be collaborating with the Royal Shakespeare Company for the first time to create the soundtrack to The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui by Bertolt Brecht. Thematically, this cautionary tale from history feels more urgent and prescient than ever, and its relevance to today’s world is very chilling.
The creative process for this project was very different for us, sometimes akin to shooting arrows in the dark. So we tried to connect with the psychology of the outsider, as well as taking inspiration from themes of power, alienation and moral decay which are at the core of this play.
We are elated by the thought that Placebo’s newest music will be performed nightly at the Swan Theatre and we can only hope that we have done this great play justice.”
Director Seán Linnen added:
“Placebo are one of the most daring, original and imaginative rock bands in history so it is unbelievably thrilling they’ve come on board to write a brand new soundtrack for our production of Bertolt Brecht’s The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui this Spring. Music is an essential part of Brecht’s plays and having Brian and Stefan’s glitteringly expansive, darkly seductive and deeply theatrical score played live on stage in the Swan theatre each night is going to be completely exhilarating for our audiences.
As the threat from the far right grows daily at home and abroad, it is our job as artists to speak up and out. There is no other play that interrogates the political moment we are living through more than this one, and I’m so lucky to have such fearless and formidable collaborators as Brian Molko, Stefan Olsdal and Mark Gatiss in bringing this production to life.”
Listings and ticket information can be found here.
