The reviews are in for Hamlet Hail to the Thief, the fusion of Shakespeare’s tragedy and Radiohead’s 2003 album that opened at the Barbican Theatre on 12 November. It is the production’s first London run, following its premiere at Aviva Studios in Manchester in 2025, and it is co-created by Thom Yorke, who reworked the album for a live band, with co-directors Christine Jones and Steven Hoggett. Every critic we have read so far gives it four or five stars, and Samuel Blenkin’s Hamlet draws the warmest praise across the board, with Paul Hilton’s Claudius close behind. Where they part company is on the price of a 100-minute version: the most enthusiastic notices find nothing lost, while Time Out, The Standard and London Box Office miss some of the depth, wit and nuance of the full play.
4.3 / 5 from 7 criticsThe verdict: eight reviews in so far. Seven of them are rated, with two five-star notices and five at four stars, an average of 4.3 out of 5; The Times sits behind a paywall. Samuel Blenkin’s Hamlet is the most praised element; the disagreement is over how much of the play a 100-minute version can afford to lose.
What are critics saying about Hamlet Hail to the Thief?
The Spy in the Stalls
“A thundering whirlwind of a production that jolts us to the core”
Reviewer: Jonathan Evans
Evans admits he arrived suspecting the pairing was more selling point than idea, and that the evening changed his mind. He is especially taken with Blenkin, whose slight frame and twitching, musical physicality carry a grief that keeps finding somewhere further to go.
“Packed with more innovation than many an interpretation twice its length.”
He also praises Ami Tredrea’s Ophelia, Hilton’s swaggering Claudius and Jess Williams’s choreography. His one doubt concerns the lyrics, which he finds set the mood rather than speak to the play.
The Recs
“‘Hamlet Hail to the Thief’ is Shakespeare + Radiohead = Theatre!”
The Recs credits Christine Jones’s pared-back script with keeping Shakespeare’s cadence while making the language easier to follow, and finds that the fragments of the album slot into the drama with real precision.
“One of the most gripping, frenetic and visceral productions this reviewer has ever seen.”
The review gives the movement as much credit as the words, since mime and choreography carry much of what the cut speeches once did, and it picks out Hilton’s Claudius as a man to be avoided. Its verdict is that no love of either source is needed to enjoy it.
The Standard
“This Radiohead/Bard mash-up is a bizarre shot of adrenaline”
Reviewer: Nick Curtis
Curtis describes the show as part play, part gig and part frantic dance piece, with the text cut back to essentials. He notes that the music feels less prominent than it did in Manchester, and he is struck that the core cast of 2025 has been reunited.
“a short, sharp jolt of adrenaline that may introduce both to a new audience.”
His reservation is tone: the original Hamlet is a witty man, and here a monochrome, art-rock seriousness takes over. Even so, he regards it as exactly the kind of work the RSC should make alongside its more traditional productions.
Time Out
“Thom Yorke’s Shakespeare collaboration with the RSC has got better since it debuted in Manchester last year”
Reviewer: Andrzej Lukowski
Lukowski had mixed feelings in Manchester and enjoyed the London transfer far more, suspecting the show has been tightened. He reads it as a nightmare version of the play, an intense descent with Blenkin leaving no doubt that his Hamlet has gone over the edge.
“It’s neither Hamlet nor Hail to the Thief, but a strange dream of them both.”
He accepts that much of the play’s depth and humour has gone, and would have liked more of the songs heard whole, but calls the result imperfect yet enthralling.
Theatre Weekly
“An exhilarating piece of theatre”
Reviewer: Greg Stewart
Stewart thinks the show avoids both traps a concept like this invites, being neither Shakespeare with background music nor a jukebox musical, because the two works run side by side without forced connections.
“a bold piece of theatre that stands confidently on its own.”
He admires the momentum of the shortened story, Blenkin’s rawness, Tredrea’s fully realised Ophelia and Hilton’s chilling authority, and he is most impressed that newcomers to either source need no homework.
London Box Office
“An oddly stylised Frankenstein’s monster - but often in a good way”
Reviewer: Stuart King
King enjoys the darkness of the staging, from Will Duke’s ghostly projections to a Rasputin-like Claudius from Hilton, and he picks out Miles Barrow and Felipe Pacheco as an energised Rosencrantz and Guildenstern.
“The result is bleak yet stylish, rushed but engaging, slick and yet a Hamlet-by-numbers”
He finds that the cuts leave Horatio, Laertes and Gertrude with less to do, and that nuance is the price of the running time. He appreciated the fresh approach but leaves undecided on the balance of its merits and shortcomings.
1883 Magazine
“Radiohead makes the walls shake in Hamlet Hail to the Thief”
Reviewer: Nick Barr
Barr sees the production as a ghost story, and credits the projections, Lisa Duncan’s black costumes and Jessica Hung Han Yun’s lighting with images worthy of an album cover.
“Samuel Blenkin is extraordinary as a prince coming apart at the seams”
He enjoys Hilton doubling as the Ghost and Claudius, finds Ophelia’s death one of the moments where everything comes together, and was moved by Alby Baldwin’s closing speech as Horatio. His only quibble is that the lyrics sung through a megaphone early on are hard to catch.
Also reviewed by: The Times (Dominic Maxwell, "the Bard and Radiohead’s taut collision"), whose review sits behind a paywall.
We published the first production photographs from the Barbican earlier this week, and this week’s other roundups include Cloud 9 at the National Theatre and Dogstar at Hampstead Theatre.
Hamlet Hail to the Thief is booking at the Barbican Theatre until Saturday 23 January 2027.
