Warwickshire &amp; West Midlands

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Imagine a modern Hamlet with the vulnerability of Jeremy Allen White&#8217;s Carmy in The Bear, the swagger of say, a young Richard Ashcroft, and absurdist, self-depreciative wit of James Acaster.



This is just a hint of what Samuel Blenkin brings to Shakespeare&#8217;s most angst-ridden, tortured soul, Hamlet, in an edgy, emotionally charged and electrifying contemporary cross form performance fusing drama, physical theatre and live music.



Thom Yorke and fellow Co-Creators Christine Jones and Steven Hoggett &#8211; two key creatives behind the Tony and Olivier-Award winning play Harry Potter and the Cursed Child &#8211; have ripped up the rulebook with their haunting Dystopian Radiohead and Shakespeare mash-up.



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<a href="https://www.rsc.org.uk/Hamlet-Hail-to-the-Thief">Hamlet Hail to the Thief</a> is a collaboration between the RSC and Manchester&#8217;s Factory International, where it made its world premiere from 27 April-18 May, before transferring to the Royal Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford with a limited-run until 28 June.



The 1 hour 40 minute show &#8211; which runs without an interval &#8211; has been wowing audiences and critics alike up-and-down the country. Tickets at the RSC have already sold out.



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Musicians play a deconstructed version of Radiohead&#8217;s Grammy-award winning sixth album Hail to the Thief live onstage, personally reworked by Yorke. Two singers, Ed Begley and Megan Hill, give a rendition of Yorke&#8217;s intense vocals that is pitch perfect, adding to the impending sense of creeping paranoia and poignancy. In a genius stroke each musician plays from their own separate studio as if recording a live session.



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This is Shakespeare designed with muso&#8217;s in mind &#8211; BBC 6 music listeners, indie kids and Radiohead fans &#8211; who lean towards booking gigs over live theatre. The play opens on a smoke-filled strip backed set with amps, industrial amber lights and a wall of speakers in different shapes and sizes. 



Empty coats hang symbolically mid-air then float into the heavens before descending once again to the stage in full circle as the play reaches its conclusion. The sartorial choice for the cast? All black of course &#8211; broken up only by white shirts worn with Gertrude and Claudius&#8217; suits.



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Hats off to an excellent, multi-talented a cast of 20 actors and musicians who brilliantly execute Jess Williams physically exhilarating, energetic and explosive choreography, under the supervision of co-director Hoggett, a founding member of physical dance company Frantic Assembly.



Back in 2022 Kendrick Lamar opened the space up for where music and modern dance can go with his revelatory tightly choreographed 2022 Glastonbury set, a deep dive into the star&#8217;s psychology. 



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Honing in on Hamlet&#8217;s deeper mental and emotional states through a contemporary lens what&#8217;s really interesting about this production &#8211; and what connects on an emotional level. Just a month after the death of her first husband Gertrude &#8211; a calm presence, superbly played by Claudia Harrison &#8211; Princess Anne in Netflix&#8217;s The Crown &#8211; speedily marries his brother,&nbsp;Claudius.



Yet neither of the couple appear to have contemplated the psychological impact on Hamlet. His grief is compounded by hatred for his uncle’s scheming and bitterness at what he sees as his mother’s morally corrupt actions. In one particularly striking dance sequence Hamlet and Paul Hilton&#8217;s Claudius literally clash head-to-head.



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Judging by the skill, intensity and incredible energy Blenkin brings to 30-year-old Hamlet &#8211; with his sharp critique of the increasingly autocratic state he now inhabits and indignant anger &#8211; you get the sense his career is seriously about to blow up big time.



Blenkin rose to prominence as Scorpius Malfoy in the West End production of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child and has appeared in series such as Peaky Blinders, Atlanta, and Black Mirror.



After Bong Joon-ho&#8217;s film Mickey 17 starring alongside Robert Pattison he&#8217;s just finished shooting a leading role in FX&#8217;s new Alien series written and directed by Fargo&#8216;s Noah Hawley and produced by Ridley Scott. Will he join a new breed of new ‘post-alpha males’ like actors Paul Mescal, Josh O&#8217;Connor and Frank Dillane to lead the charge?



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Oldham-born actor Hilton, who you may recognise from TV shows including Grantchester, A Very English Scandal, The Crown and more recently as Robert Hobden in Slow Horses, is equally brilliant as devious, power hungry Claudius.



It&#8217;s refreshing also to see Ophelia&#8217;s story retold in a new light through eyes of a female director at the top of her game through a touching performance by Ami Tredrea, (Black Mirror, All of Us Strangers). 



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She&#8217;s a wild, bohemian free spirit; the initial chemistry with Hamlet is intense. If you&#8217;re lucky enough to have tickets, you may want to bring a tissue &#8211; one unexpected piece of clever staging simply took my breath away.



This pared down script &#8211; which Jones edited it down from four hours &#8211; also succeeds in amplifying the subtle poetic beauty of Shakespeare&#8217;s powerful lines and cleverly draws out Hamlet&#8217;s dry, comedic outlook in some amusing laugh-out loud moments that break up the impending doom of the Bard&#8217;s Denmark-set tragedy. Watch out for the megaphone!



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" width="1000" height="667" src="https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/warks/wp-content/uploads/sites/18/2025/06/398200_Hamlet-Hail-to-the-Thief-production-images-2025_2025-1000x667.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-61792" srcset="https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/warks/wp-content/uploads/sites/18/2025/06/398200_Hamlet-Hail-to-the-Thief-production-images-2025_2025-1000x667.jpg 1000w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/warks/wp-content/uploads/sites/18/2025/06/398200_Hamlet-Hail-to-the-Thief-production-images-2025_2025-800x533.jpg 800w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/warks/wp-content/uploads/sites/18/2025/06/398200_Hamlet-Hail-to-the-Thief-production-images-2025_2025-768x512.jpg 768w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/warks/wp-content/uploads/sites/18/2025/06/398200_Hamlet-Hail-to-the-Thief-production-images-2025_2025.jpg 1500w" sizes="(max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px" /></figure>



While Hamlet Hail to the Thief works beautifully within the intimate space of the main RSC auditorium, it would equally not look out of place at Glastonbury&#8230;



<a href="https://www.rsc.org.uk/Hamlet-Hail-to-the-Thief">Hamlet Hail to the Thief</a> is currently running at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre at Stratford Upon Avon until 28 June. A post-show talk will take place at the final matinee performance. On going to press there were still some £8 stall tickets for an <a href="https://www.rsc.org.uk/hamlet-hail-to-the-thief/related-events">Unwrapped</a> behind-the-scenes demo offering a peek into the rehearsal room on 21 June, 11am.



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Review: Hamlet Hail to the Thief, Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford Upon Avon

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