The Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) has unveiled the complete cast and creative team for its highly anticipated “Hamlet Hail to the Thief,” with Samuel Blenkin, fresh from Noah Hawley’s upcoming “Alien” series for FX and Bong Joon Ho’s “Mickey 17,” taking on the title role.
Claudia Harrison, known for her SAG Award-nominated turn as Princess Anne in “The Crown,” will play Gertrude opposite Olivier nominee Paul Hilton (“Slow Horses,” “An Enemy of the People”) as Claudius and the Ghost.
This reimagining of Shakespeare’s classic tragedy marks a collaboration between theater and music, with Radiohead frontman Thom Yorke personally reworking and orchestrating tracks from the band’s 2003 album “Hail to the Thief.” The production promises a “feverish” live experience featuring a 20-strong ensemble of musicians and actors performing the deconstructed album alongside Shakespeare’s text.
Rising star Ami Tredrea (“Black Mirror,” “Prime Target”) joins the ensemble as Ophelia, with Annabel Baldwin (“I Hate Suzie”) as Horatio, Brandon Grace (“London Tide”) as Laertes, James Cooney as Rosencrantz, and Felipe Pacheco as Guildenstern. Veteran stage actor Tom Peters (“Stranger Things” West End) rounds out the principals as Polonius, with Romaya Weaver taking on the role of Gravedigger.
The production’s ensemble will be completed by Daniel Davids (“The Lion King”), Kieran Garland (“The Ocean at the End of the Lane”), and Marienella Phillips (“Love’s Labour’s Lost”) as off-stage swings. The band comprises Ed Begley, Tom Brady, Joe Downard, Shane Forbes, Megan Hill, Tom Knowles, and Adam Martin.
“I feel immensely lucky to be meeting both ‘Hamlet’ and Thom’s extraordinary compositions on stage at two cultural institutions, with such a wildly talented cast and creative team. Christine and Steven’s urgent interpretation of Hamlet is brimming with rage and relevance, and ‘Hail to the Thief’’s songs perfectly electrify the play’s madness, sadness, joys and themes of societal disintegration,” Blenkin said.
“‘Hamlet’ contains many ghosts for me: it’s long lineage of performances, the speeches I learnt from it that got me into drama school, and it’s many different interpretations. I’m excited, terrified and honoured to get the chance to perform this role in a unique production at both Factory International and the RSC: two dream venues that have shaped my desire to act,” Blenkin added.
The creative team brings serious theatrical firepower, with Tony winner Christine Jones (“Harry Potter and the Cursed Child”) and Steven Hoggett co-directing. Their interpretation centers on “Hamlet and Ophelia’s awakening to the lies and corruption in Denmark, gradually revealed by ghosts and music,” according to production notes. The project has also tapped Frantic Assembly associate Jess Williams as choreographer.
The technical team includes scenography by AMP featuring Sadra Tehrani, arrangements by Justin Levine, music supervision by Tom Brady, sound design by Gareth Fry, projection design by Will Duke, lighting design by Jessica Hung Han Yun, and costume design by Lisa Duncan. Text consultancy and dramaturgy come from Ayanna Thompson, with casting by Charlotte Sutton CDG for the RSC.
Co-produced by Factory International, the RSC, and ATC Experience, with Nate Koch and Vivek J. Tiwary for TEG+, the production will premiere at Manchester’s Aviva Studios (April 27-May 18) before transferring to the Royal Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon (June 4-28).
The show represents a continued evolution for Yorke’s theatrical work, following his previous contributions to Douglas Hodge’s 2015 production of Harold Pinter’s “Old Times” and his recent film scoring work for “Suspiria” and “Confidenza.”
