London hasn’t had a big sleb-centric Hamlet in long while – although James Norton’s doing it next year – but the recent trend for slightly alternative takes on Shakespeare’s greatest play reaches something like its apotheosis with the RSC’s Hamlet Hail to the Thief. Debuting at Manchester’s Factory International last year, the show – directed by Christine Jones and Steven Hoggett – does indeed combine Thom Yorke’s specially rearranged score of tracks from Radiohead’s sixth album Hail to the Thief, with a very edited version of (duh) Hamlet. It’s a pretty mad idea and reviews were slightly mixed. Buf Hoggett has suggested it’ll be a tweaked version of the show. With a live band – not Radiohead – playing the rearranged songs (the most famous which is the top five hit ‘There There’), it’s a short, gloomy, strange take on the play with moments of spine-tingling magic when songs and story do hit mesh perfectly.
Though the cast has been somewhat overshadowed by the songs when it comes to talking aboyt the show, it’s a very decent ensemble – largely retained from Manchester – with Samuel Blenkin as Hamlet and Paul Hilton as Claudius.
