Radiohead and Shakespeare collide in new production

British band Radiohead are reworking their 2003 album Hail to the Thief to soundtrack a new stage adaptation of Shakespeare’s Hamlet that will premiere in Manchester in April.

Radiohead’s sixth studio album, which includes tracks There There and 2+2=5, was recorded following the September 11 attacks in the US and the subsequent “War on Terror”, and shares with the Shakespearian tragedy themes of fear and paranoia.

Frontman and songwriter Thom Yorke called the collaboration with directors Christine Jones and Steven Hoggett - titled Hamlet Hail to the Thief - an “interesting and intimidating challenge”.

Adapting Hail to The Thief involved pulling its sounds “into and out of context, seeing what chimes with the underlying grief and paranoia of Hamlet (and) using the music as a ‘presence’ in the room,” Yorke said in a statement.

“Ghosting one against the other.”

Jones said in the same statement that she first had the idea of combining the album and the play shortly after seeing Radiohead during the Hail to the Thief tour in 2003.

“There are uncanny reverberances between the text and the album,” she said.

“For years I’ve wanted to see the play and album collide in a piece of theatre; eventually I shared the idea with Thom, who was intrigued.”

The adaptation will premiere at Aviva Studios, home of Factory International in Manchester, before transferring to the Royal Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford Upon Avon.

Radiohead, which also comprises Jonny Greenwood, Colin Greenwood, Ed O’Brien and Philip Selway, have released nine critically acclaimed studio albums that span rock and electronic music.