Hamlet Hail to the Thief Review London – 5 Reasons To See It

Hamlet Hail to the Thief is the latest RSC production to transfer to London’s Barbican Theatre after sell out runs at Manchester’s Factory International and Stratford-upon-Avon’s Royal Shakespeare Theatre.

Co-created with Radiohead’s frontman, Thom Yorke, and co-directors Christine Jones and Steven Hoggett, the production brings together Shakespeare’s Hamlet and Radiohead’s 2003 album Hail To The Thief to create a high-energy, intensely physical performance which seamlessly combines the two influences.

If you’re thinking of seeing Hamlet Hail to the Thief, check out our five reasons why you should book your tickets for this limited run.

The Show’s Visuals

Right from when you enter the Barbican Theatre’s auditorium (which is visually impressive on it’s own), the show is visually atmospheric. AMP and Sadra Tehrani’s set is imposing, even shrouded in stage haze before the performance starts. It’s stark, monochromatic face could be, and is clearly influenced by many different things; a recording studio with windows framing the musicians, the imposing stone face of a castle that begins to feel like a prison, or an Orwellian ministry building projecting total control. Jessica Hung Han Yun’s lighting design and Will Duke’s projection design both transform the mainly black stage to reflect the different settings of the play well and create new spaces where there are no props to add boundaries.
 

Features Radiohead’s Music

Obviously, the big draw of this particular production of Hamlet is the inclusion of Radiohead’s music. The orchestrations are by Thom Yorke, which definitely helps the music feel authentic to Radiohead’s original album, rather than being a tribute to it. Going into the show, I didn’t know a lot about it, and was slightly concerned that the music would have been used to make the production like a jukebox musical, but that couldn’t have been further from what this show is. There’s a great balance of the music being forefront in the production and providing a background atmosphere that helps build the tension and energy of the whole production, but it never feels dropped in for the sake of it.

The band are onstage throughout the performance, in booths built into the set that echo recording studio rooms, with vocalists using doorways on the upper level of the set, really helping make the music feel like an integral part of production, not a bolted-on extra.

A Bold New Take On Shakespeare’s Tragedy

To quote the text, “The play’s the thing”. It would be easy for the text to be overshadowed by the music, but it never felt that way. Obviously, with a 1 hour 40 minute running time (there’s no interval), the text has been considerably abridged. For Shakespeare purists, this would probably be a problem, but I wonder if anyone who would put themselves in that camp would choose to attend this production anyway. There are sections where the text is cut, but replaced with movement, which means the story is still easy to follow as it unfolds.

While it’s not a production that necessarily shows off the play in a classical way, I think it’s different enough if you want a different take on the play as someone who knows it well, or perhaps a great introduction if you come to it via the music as a newcomer to Hamlet.

The Phenomenal Cast

Every member of the cast carried their part perfectly. Sometimes, with shows that combine a well-known script with a new physical interpretation, the cast seems to have been picked for their abilities either as an actor or as a dancer. For this production, Jess Williams’ choreography blends seamlessly with everything, with no one looking especially awkward in their movement.

Samuel Blenkin as Hamlet plays the descent into apparent madness beautifully, never feeling like it’s being overacted for effect, and with brief moments of clarity even towards the end where he could be just as sane as anyone. Paul Hilton as Claudius was another standout performance – holding a statesmanlike authority when announcing his marriage to Gertrude, but moving in a way that reminded me of the indie rock stars of the early 2000s when in private.

The Venue

The Barbican is often held up as a brutalist masterpiece. It’s famous for its concrete and wide-open spaces; the entrance spaces and bars are open and spacious, with plenty of room to wait for the theatre doors to open if you arrive early.

The auditorium itself really fits this production. The brutalist lines of the room match up with the set design beautifully, and the automated doors at the end of each row add to the totalitarian feel of the state of Denmark in the production. The seats are comfortable, although the seat backs are quite low, which meant I started to get fidgety by the end of this production. The stalls have a really good rake, so even being short, I could see everything clearly over the heads of the row in front. There is plenty of legroom, so no need to stand up to let people pass into the middle of the row. It’s worth noting that there is no central aisle in the Barbican Theatre, so if you are sitting at the end of a row, you will have to let everyone pass, or if you are the sort of person who likes to be able to make a quick exit, you will be better off sitting at the end of a row rather than a more central seat.

Hamlet Hail to the Thief plays at the Barbican Theatre until 23 January 2027.

Where I Sat

I sat at Stalls, row H, seat 39. One seat in from the aisle, this seat had plenty of legroom for me at 5’2”, and the rake meant that I could see over the row in front’s heads for a clear view of the stage. Being to the side didn’t mean a restricted view for this production, although I have seen other shows where being this close to the side has meant missing small parts of a show behind set pieces. The low seat back got a little uncomfortable by the end of the performance, but nothing that standing up at the end of the performance didn’t solve.

Have You Seen Hamlet Hail to the Thief?

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