IF one did not already find Radiohead’s music challenging enough, picture the band’s notoriously difficult album Hail to the Thief being adapted as accompaniment to a stage performance of a literary classic.
Intrigued? Well, this project is set to take off the ground with lead singer Thom Yorke has worked with designer and director Christine Jones and director and choreographer Steven Hoggett to create a new adaptation of William Shakespeare’s Hamlet.
According to the band’s social media site, the songs from Hail To The Thief have been deconstructed and remoulded into a score to serve the play, to be performed by live musicians and cast members.
“This is an interesting and intimidating challenge.. ! Adapting the original music of Hail to The Thief for live performance with the actors on stage to tell this story that is forever being told, using its familiarity and sounds, pulling them into and out of context.. seeing what chimes with the underlying grief and paranoia of Hamlet, using the music as a “presence” in the room, watching how it collides with the action and the text. Ghosting one against the other,” noted Yorke on Facebook.
