Hamlet Hail to the Thief will make its London premiere at the Barbican Theatre from 31 October 2026 to 23 January 2027, following acclaimed, sold out runs with the Royal Shakespeare Company and at Aviva Studios.
Co-created by Thom Yorke, Christine Jones and Steven Hoggett, the production fuses Shakespeare’s tragedy with Radiohead’s 2003 album Hail to the Thief, reworked by Yorke and performed live on stage by a company of actors and musicians.
Samuel Blenkin returns to the title role, alongside Ami Tredrea as Ophelia, with Paul Hilton as Claudius and the Ghost and Claudia Harrison as Gertrude.
The cast also includes Alby Baldwin, Brandon Grace, Felipe Pacheco, Romaya Weaver and Marienella Phillips, with further casting to be announced.
In this fast-paced interpretation, Shakespeare’s text and Radiohead’s music intertwine to explore a world of corruption, paranoia and emotional upheaval, with the story centred on Hamlet and Ophelia’s awakening within a fractured state.
Thom Yorke said “I’m into finally bringing ‘Hamlet Hail to the Thief’ to London, and to the Barbican of all places! It is fascinating and very strange to me how this came to life and how it has worked. When it revealed itself to us over time I was shocked, having never had this kind of experience before. I am happy for it to be seen by a wider audience in such an intense space.”
Christine Jones said: “Bringing this brutal play into the Barbican’s brutalist space seems fated. I feel fiercely fortunate to regroup with these incisive collaborators and push our work further. Both the play and the album continue to speak urgently to the convulsed world we find ourselves in. For me, working on this project is one way to find the ground beneath me.”
Steven Hoggett said: “The chance to put all the learnings into the next stages of a show is a great privilege. What were guesstimates and hopes become areas we can now push into, knowing we can create more precision. The fact that this is the process that will find its home on stage at the Barbican is truly thrilling. The show will become richer in its elision of music, movement and text which makes this space a perfect home. I myself have sat in the auditorium on many, many occasions and had the boundaries blown apart as to what theatre might be. We’re following some giants but also many of my personal inspirations. In this way we hope to continue this dazzling tradition – a commitment to theatre that looks to meet the expectations of a multi-generational audience with an intention to be as radical as we are reverential.”
The production features orchestrations by Thom Yorke, choreography by Jess Williams, and design work from a creative team including AMP, Sadra Tehrani, Gareth Fry, Will Duke and Jessica Hung Han Yun.
Tickets for the Barbican run go on sale at 10am on Friday 26 June 2026.
Listings and ticket information can be found here.
