Hamlet Hail to the Thief: Review

Combining art forms to create something beyond traditional description has become a hallmark of Factory. Hence why Hamlet Hail to the Thief is advertised not as a play or musical, but as ‘a live experience, fusing theatre, music and movement’.

In many ways the broader description suits it well, because this mash-up of Shakespeare’s Hamlet and Radiohead’s 2003 album, Hail to the Thief is neither a rock musical nor a straight play. Rather this co-production from Factory International and RSC presents an immersive experience, at times both gig-like and filmic, fusing these singularly challenging art works to create something new and more accessible.

It is an experimental show that has been simmering in the creative minds of co-creators Christine Jones, Steven Hoggett and Thom Yorke for 20 years. Co-directors Jones and Hoggett previously worked together on several projects including political Green Day musical American Idiot. This production has a similar dark, politicised and angsty tone. But it is definitely not a musical. And while the music and play get equal billing in the title don’t expect to go along and hear a live version of the album.

Instead, Radiohead’s Yorke has reworked his album as a continuous soundtrack which is played by a live band (not Radiohead) on-stage behind visible sound booths, with two singers Ed Begley and Megan Hill on an upper level, like turrets of the castle, looking down into the main hall of the stage.

The music adds another layer of emotional depth, providing seamless space for physical theatre and dance to fill the gaps where the text has been slashed to keep the running time to a tight one hour 45 minutes. The music also comes to the fore in the staging designed by AMP featuring Sadra Tehrani, who make use of huge amps as props on an otherwise bare stage. Jessica Hung Han Yun’s lighting design produces a stadium gig effect, that feels like an assault on the senses in the relatively small space of Aviva Studios.

It all goes to make for a sense of unease that something is rotten in the state of Denmark. So, what of Hamlet? Well, it is a bit of a whistle-stop tour of the play, but the main scenes are all there, albeit much-shortened, and it makes for an accessible and gripping introduction to the story.

Samuel Blenkin brings out the vulnerability and complexity of Hamlet’s character. His abandoned dancing with Ophelia and enthusiastic banter with Rosencrantz and Guildenstern show us glimpses of a more joyful side to his personality.  He is equally sympathetic when wallowing and raving, his grief and righteous anger misunderstood as madness in a society that seems to be complicit in the wrong-doings of those in power.

In its stripping down of the text with explosive force it feels like Hamlet Hail to the Thief has illuminated the core of Shakespeare’s universal tale and it’s blindingly good.

‘Hamlet Hail to the Thief’ is a co-production between the Royal Shakespeare Company and Factory International, running at Aviva Studios Home of Factory International, Manchester until 18 May before transferring to the Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford Upon Avon from 4 June – 28 June.