Hamlet Hail to the Thief, the visceral new adaptation of Shakespeare’s tragedy scored to Radiohead’s Hail to the Thief, had its world premiere last night at Manchester’s Aviva Studios, home of Factory International, and delivered a genre-defying theatrical experience that sets a new benchmark for reimagined classics.
Following a week of previews, the production officially opened to a packed house, marking the official start of a limited run in Manchester until 18 May, before transferring to the Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon from 4–28 June 2025.
Directed by Steven Hoggett and Christine Jones – who also adapted the play – the production saw Radiohead frontman Thom Yorke personally rework the band’s 2003 album into a deconstructed score performed live onstage by a company of 20 musicians and actors.
Samuel Blenkin stars as Hamlet, alongside Ami Tredrea as Ophelia, Paul Hilton as Claudius/Ghost, Claudia Harrison as Gertrude, Alby Baldwin as Horatio, Brandon Grace as Laertes, James Cooney as Rosencrantz, Felipe Pacheco as Guildenstern, Tom Peters as Polonius, and Romaya Weaver as the Gravedigger. Off-Stage Swings include Daniel Davids, Kieran Garland, and Marienella Phillips.
READ MORE: Mercury Prize to leave London for first time – and it’s heading to Newcastle
In a high-octane distillation of the play, Shakespeare’s text and Radiohead’s brooding, paranoia-laced album “illuminate one another in thrilling new ways.” It really is a spectacle to behold. The production centres on Hamlet and Ophelia’s awakening to the lies and corruption in Denmark, gradually revealed through ghosts and music, with “paranoia reigning and no one spared a tragic unravelling.”
Hail to the Thief, Radiohead’s sixth studio album, was shaped by the climate of fear and disillusionment following 9/11 and the War on Terror. With tracks like “There There,” “2+2=5” and “Go to Sleep,” the album fuses rock with unsettling experimental elements and dystopian lyricism – providing a haunting sonic landscape for this unique take on the classic tragedy.
READ MORE: Former CBeebies chief and BBC Salford move mastermind appointed CEO at MediaCity
The combination of these two classics, both separated and somehow united by 400-years, is totally unique and the mesmerising production, which combines elements of performance dance with Shakespearean tragedy and indie rock is unlike anything you’ve ever seen before. A real treat for the eyes and ears – and another major artistic scalp for Factory International and the North’s world-beating arts scene.
THE PEOPLE BEHIND THE SHOW
ALBY BALDWIN – Horatio
Alby’s theatre work includes: Tender (Bush Theatre, 2025) Paradise Now (Bush Theatre) Antigone (New Diorama) Harry Potter and the Cursed Child Original Cast (Palace Theatre London) Pride and Prejudice Sort Of* (Criterion) The Wolves (Theatre Royal Stratford East), Wild Swimming (Bristol Old Vic/ Pleasance), Dear Elizabeth (Gate Theatre) and How to build a Wax Figure (Pleasance) they also appeared in the RSC’s touring production of Julius Caesar as Cassius. Their television and film work includes The Great (Hulu), Doctors (BBC), I hate Suzie (Amazon Prime), The Jewish Enquirer (Amazon Prime) Love Wins (Evolve Productions.) They work with the mentoring charity Scene and Heard. They played Anne Elliot in Audible’s original adaptation of Persuasion and have narrated novels such as Our Wives under the Sea, Experienced and Faking It.
SAMUEL BLENKIN – Hamlet
Sam recently wrapped a leading role in Noah Hawley’s new Alien series for FX, produced by Ridley Scott. He played the lead in the Black Mirror episode “Loch Henry,” and will next be seen in Bong Joon-Ho’s film Mickey 17 alongside Robert Pattinson. Sam is a highly established theatre actor, having led the National Theatre’s Ocean at The End Of The Lane, and starred opposite Simon Russell Beale in Bach & Sons, directed by Nick Hytner. He previously played Scorpius Malfoy in the West End production of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child. His other television credits include a major role in Sky and AMC’s historical drama Mary & George, playing opposite Julianne Moore, as well as a highly memorable guest lead in the third season of Atlanta opposite Donald Glover. He is represented by Insight Management & Production and Circle Management + Production.
JAMES COONEY – Rosencrantz
Theatre Includes: Betrayal (Repertory Philippines); Romeo & Juliet (Almeida Theatre); Henry V (Headlong UK Tour); Henry V (Shakespeare’s Globe); Around The World in 80 Days (Eastbourne Theatres); The 47th (The Old Vic); Measure for Measure (RSC) Troilus and Cressida (RSC); Hamlet (RSC – Hackney Empire and UK Tour / Kennedy Center Washington DC); King Lear (RSC); Cynbeline (RSC); Flare Path (UK Tour); Plastic (Latitude Festival); The Natives Jamie Jackson (Old Vic New Voices Festival); A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Squerryes Court); Hamlet (Watermill Theatre); Bottleneck (High Tide Festival Theatre); Bottom Up (Little Pieces of Gold @ Southwark Playhouse); The Only Way is Chelsea’s (York Theatre Royal / Newcastle / Soho Theatre); Apples/ThatcherWrite (Theatre503); 24 Hour Plays: Cinderland (Old Vic New Voices); You Once Said Yes (Look Left Look Right); The Bird and The Two-Ton Weight (Old Vic New Voices); Island (National Theatre); Romeo & Juliet (Lodestar Theatre Company). Television includes: Andor (Disney+); ABC Murders (Mammoth Screen for BBC); Casualty (BBC); Silent Witness (BBC); Doctors (BBC). Film Includes: Strangeways Here We Come (Oh My! Productions); Jester and Flora (Short Film);
Vic/Tim (Short Film, NFTS); Cushy (Short Film, Second Shot Productions); Etu (Short Film, First Take). Radio Includes: London Belongs to Me (BBC Radio 4); From Morning to Midnight (BBC Radio 3)
DANIEL DAVIDS – Off-Stage Swing
Daniel’s first professional role, at the age of 12 was as “Young Simba’ in The Lion King in the West End, a role he reprised on tour in Taiwan. Daniel continued working in plays and musicals internationally including the American 2-hander play I and You for the European premiere in Sweden; A New World: A Life of Thomas Paine (Shakespeare Globe Theatre) and ‘Levi’ in the original cast of Olivier-nominated Everybody’s Talking About Jamie (Apollo Theatre). Daniel is often recognised for his small screen role as ‘Tobi Adebanjo’ in six seasons of the Netflix sit-com Meet The Adebanjos for which he was nominated for a BEFFTA Award, followed by a number of independent films that have been screened at festivals around the world, with most recent screen credits including Casualty (BBC – 2024) and lead in upcoming movies In The Blackness (dir: Hakeem Kae-Kazim) and Sunray: Fallen Soldier with other releases later in 2025.
KIERAN GARLAND – Off-Stage Swing
Theatre includes: The Ocean at the End of the Lane, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night- Time(National Theatre), The Shawshank Redemption (UK & Ireland, Bill Kenwright Ltd.), Much Ado About Nothing (East London Shakespeare Festival), Macbeth (RIFT), Lysistrata (Actors of Dionysus), The Duchess of Malfi (Prodigal Theatre) TV includes: Silent Witness (BBC), A Thousand Blows (Disney+), American Monster (Discovery I.D.), Locked Up Abroad (National Geographic)
BRANDON GRACE – Laertes
Theatre credits include: Cyrano (Traverse Theatre), London Tide (National Theatre); Mlima’s Tale (Kiln Theatre); and Much Ado About Nothing (National Theatre). Television credits include: My Lady Jane (Amazon); and the second series of Fate: The Winx Saga (Netflix)
CLAUDIA HARRISON – Gertrude
Claudia most recently played Princess Anne in Netflix’s The Crown, earning SAG Award nominations in the category of Best Ensemble (Drama) in 2023 and 2024. She will soon be seen in Philippa Lowthorpe’s Love Story for BBC. Other work includes Humans for Channel 4, The Painkiller with Rob Brydon and Kenneth Branagh (Lyric, Belfast), Lucan with Rory Kinnear (ITV) and The Biggest Secret with Benedict Cumberbatch (BBC Radio 4.) She has been involved in the New Voices seasons at the Old Vic, numerous workshops for the National Theatre Studio, Royal Court and comedy improvisation for Talkback Thames. Alongside acting, Claudia is an Associate Teacher for RADA.
PAUL HILTON – Claudius/ Ghost.
Paul Hilton most recently played ‘Joxer Daly’ in Juno & The Paycock (Gielgud Theatre, West End), opposite Mark Rylance and J. Smith Cameron. Recent television highlights include: as ‘Robert Hobden’ in Slow Horses on Apple TV+, Stephen Frears’ A Very English Scandal and The Crown. In film, Paul played the lead in Lucile Hadzihalilovic’s BFI/Film4 feature Earwig, premiering at TIFF. Also: Craig Roberts’ film Eternal Beauty, Lady Macbeth, London Road and Andrea Arnold’s Wuthering Heights. Paul was in the hit show The Inheritance at the Young Vic, later transferring to the Noel Coward Theatre and onwards Broadway, for which he was Tony nominated. He was also recently in An Enemy of the People at the Duke of York’s, for which he was Olivier nominated. Other theatre highlights include playing the titular role in Peter Pan at the National Theatre, ‘Iago’ in Othello at the National Theatre and The Glass Menagerie with Amy Adams (Duke of York’s).
FELIPE PACHECO – Guildenstern
Theatre includes: Toto Kerblammo! (Unicorn Theatre); Rope (Theatre Clwyd); Up Next (National Theatre); Metamorphosis, Othello, The Way I See It (Frantic Assembly); Henry V (Donmar Warehouse); Peter Pan (Alban Arena); A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Zorro (Off The Ground); Our Shore (Buried Thunder); Lord of the Flies (New Adventures). Television and Film includes: Patterns (Prime Video); Brassic (Sky One); The Responder (BBC One); No Reason to Live (Chemical Brothers & Gecko); Family (Emeli Sandé); B in Black (Pappy Show); Essence (Buried Thunder).
TOM PETERS – Polonius
Theatre credits include: Stranger Things (Phoenix Theatre); Harry Potter and the Cursed Child (Palace Theatre); The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime (UK tour), Ugly Lies the Bone, The Motherf**ker with the Hat, Strange Interlude, Scenes From An Execution, Travelling Light, The London Cuckolds, Ivanov (The National Theatre); Present Laughter, Girl From The North Country, The Crucible, Dancing At Lughnasa (Old Vic); 101 Dalmatians (Regents Park Open Air Theatre); Medea (Soho Place); Sheppey (Orange Tree); Macbeth (Court Theatre, NZ); Four Cities (The Fortune, NZ); Treasure Island (The New Vic, Newcastle-under-Lyme) The Alchemist (The Belgrade Theatre, Coventry); Forever House (The Drum, Plymouth Theatre Royal); A View From The Bridge (Liverpool Playhouse); The Winter’s Tale (Riding Lights Theatre Company); The Taming of the Shrew, The Two
Gentlemen of Verona, Romeo & Juliet (Guildford Shakespeare Company); Dick Whittington, Aladdin (Salisbury Playhouse); Jack & The Beanstalk, Mother Goose, Aladdin, Dick Whittington, BFG (Harrogate Theatre); The Crampons of Fear (Easter Angles); Hamlet, 27 (Fecund Theatre); A Doll’s House (New End Theatre); Gallows Song, Dark Tales (The Bridewell Theatre); Antony & Cleopatra, Tales From King James, Twelfth Night, Much Ado About Nothing, As You Like It, Macbeth, Robin Hood, The Oxford Passion, Shakespeare’s Saint & Sinners (Creation Theatre Co.) Television credits include: We Were the Lucky Ones (Hulu)
MARIENELLA PHILLIPS – Off-Stage Swing
Theatre Credits: A Christmas Carol (The Lowry, Manchester), Love’s Labour’s Lost (Royal Shakespeare Company), The Fabulist (Charing Cross Theatre),The King & I (Dominion / UK & Ireland Tour), Henry V (Donmar Warehouse & National Theatre Live), Dead Man Walking (Welsh National Opera) Queen Margaret (Downpour Theatre Company), To Henry With Love (Princess Theatre Burnham-on-Sea), Ashes (Princess Theatre Burnham-on-Sea), The Shoemaker (Welsh National Opera), The Downfall of Don José (Longborough Festival Opera), Hansel and Gretel (Longborough Festival Opera), Dido and Aeneas (Buxton International Festival), Alcina (Ensemble Orquesta & Grimeborn Festival), Die Fledermaus (Opera’r Ddraig), Cosi fan tutte (Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama) Other credits: Anthem singer for the Rugby Football Union and other large sporting events in the UK
having sung the English and Welsh National Anthems at various stadiums including Twickenham for the Six Nations: England vs Ireland 2024, Wembley for the Women’s FA Cup 2024: Manchester UTD vs Tottenham, and Ashton Gate for the Red Roses vs Wales 2022. Winner of the Adelina Patti and Dolan Evans Prizes 2019 and Sir Ian Stoutzker Prize Finalist 2021 (Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama).
AMI TREDREA – Ophelia
Theatre credits include: London Tide (The National Theatre); The Good Person of Szechwan (Sheffield Crucible Theatre); The Crucible (the National Theatre); The 47th (The Old Vic). TV includes: Black Mirror (Netflix); Prime Target (AppleTV+); My Lady Jane (Amazon) and Three Body Problem (Netflix).
Film includes: Strangers (Fox Searchlight).
ROMAYA WEAVER – Gravedigger
Theatre Credits: Lady Effie Vibart in The Cabinet Minister (Menier Chocolate Factory). Theatre whilst training at Guildhall School of Music and Drama: Bertha in Jane Eyre, Egeon & The Office in Comedy of Errors, Desdemona in Shakespeare’s Women, Trish in Days of Significance, Helen of Troy in The Trojan Women.
CREATIVE TEAM
THOM YORKE – Co-Creator Orchestrator
Thom Yorke is a musician, composer and visual artist, best known as lead singer and principal songwriter of Radiohead. Outside his work with Radiohead, he has released three solo albums, The Eraser, Tomorrow’s Modern Boxes and ANIMA and fronted the band Atoms for Peace to release the album AMOK. Most recently, he formed The Smile alongside fellow Radiohead bandmate Jonny Greenwood and jazz drummer Tom Skinner. In quick succession, The Smile recorded and released three studio albums; A Light For Attracting Attention (2022), Wall Of Eyes and Cutouts (both 2024). Yorke’s contributions to film and theatre include original scores for Luca Guadagnino’s Suspiria (2018) and for Daniele Luchietti’s Confidenza (2024) and music for Douglas Hodge’s 2015 stage production of Harold Pinter’s Old Times. Thom continues to make visual art with artist and longtime creative collaborator Stanley Donwood. Together they have produced cover art across Radiohead and Thom’s music catalogue, including Hail To The Thief. 2021 saw the release of the KID A MNESIA Exhibition, a downloadable and interactive experience based on art and music from the Radiohead albums Kid A and Amnesiac. They have released two art books together, KID A MNESIA and Fear Stalks The Land and a retrospective exhibition of their work will go on display this at Oxford’s Ashmolean Museum this August.
CHRISTINE JONES – Co-Creator & Co-Director; AMP Scenographer
Christine Jones is a theatre artist, designer, and director. She is the creator and artistic director of Theater For One, a private portable performance space for one actor and one audience member; director of Queen of the Night, the Drama Desk-award-winning sensational immersive nightclub experience; and co-conceiver/director with Steven Hoggett and David Byrne of Social!, a social distance dance club created for the Park Avenue Armory in 2021. As a set designer, Tony and Olivier award-winning projects include The Outsiders, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, American Idiot, and Spring Awakening. Jones founded AMP Scenography with Brett Banakis, a design collective amplifying emerging and underrepresented designers through equitable collaborations, They are working with Sadra Tehrani to create the scenography for this production. Other collaborations include working with Yorke and Stanley Donwood as a curator for their interactive experience-based KID A MNESIA Exhibition; with Rag & Bone as a live event director; with Banakis on the scenography for Father John Misty’s Mahashmashana tour, and with multiple playwrights, poets, and producers presenting Theatre for One at places such as The Cork Festival,
Times Square, and with LOT-EK Architects at the Chicago Architecture Biennial. She is currently a professor at New York University and an Artist-in-Residence at the Park Avenue
Armory.
STEVEN HOGGETT – Co-Creator & Co-Director
Steven Hoggett’s work in theatre includes, as director, Discoshow at the Linq Las Vegas, Burn for National Theatre Scotland and The Joyce, New York; Social! The Social Distance Dance Club at Park Avenue Armory; and Close to You: Bacharach Reimagined at NYTW and in the West End. As choreographer, his work includes Harry Potter and the Cursed Child (Olivier Award nomination) in the West End, on Broadway and internationally; The Glass Menagerie (also Edinburgh International Festival), Once (also West End), Sweeney Todd, A Beautiful Noise, Angels in America, The Crucible, The Last Ship, Rocky: The Musical (Tony nomination), Peter and the Starcatcher (Drama Desk nomination) and American Idiot on Broadway; Nye, The Ocean at the End of the Lane, The Light Princess and The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time (also West End and Broadway; Tony and Olivier Award nominations) at the National Theatre, London; Let the Right One In for the National Theatre of Scotland and at St. Ann’s Warehouse, New York. As movement /associate director: Black Watch (Olivier Award for Best Choreography) for National Theatre Scotland and at St Ann’s Warehouse, New York. As a founding member of Frantic
Assembly, Hoggett also co-wrote, with Scott Graham, The Frantic Assembly Book of Devising Theatre.
