Hamlet Hail to the Thief at Aviva Studios Manchester review: Radiohead plus Shakespeare? Yes please

MSN ^ | Nick Curtis

[nickcarraway]

Who knew that the world needed a mashup of Shakespeare’s greatest tragedy and Radiohead’s angry response to George W Bush’s 2003 election victory? But it turns out we very much do. For this bonkers, extraordinary event, play and album have been smashed into one another by co-creators Christine Jones, Steven Hoggett and the band’s frontman and creative driver Thom Yorke.

Los Gatos Water Heater - Up To $6000 In Rebate Savings Ad Los Gatos Water Heater - Up To $6000 In Rebate Savings irbishvac.com Learn more call to action icon The resulting fragments have been brutally sieved, the grist fused into an urgent, frantic 100-minute work that’s part drama, part dance piece and part gig. That it’s opened in Factory International’s cavernous Aviva Studios in Manchester before visiting the Royal Shakespeare Company’s main stage in Stratford-upon-Avon adds to the peculiar, cool energy. (There are no London dates – yet.)

The apron stage is hung with black jackets, dotted with amps and lined with black sound insulation. Behind, the six instrumentalists are isolated in glass-fronted studios at the base of Elsinore’s castle wall, with singers Ed Begley and Megan Hill periodically appearing in doorways above to give a keening commentary on the action. The costumes are mostly black - the RSC and art-rock bands share a taste for the monochrome. Indeed, Samuel Blenkin’s frail and compelling Hamlet looks kind of like a tousle-haired indie frontman who’s been starving himself of food and sleep in pursuit of an elusive, anguished lyric.

The script has been brutally but expertly pruned, the songs mostly atomised into repeated, wordless phrases or note progressions: there’s a near constant eddy of drum and bass murmurs

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TOPICS: Culture/Society; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: bush; hamlet; radiohead

[Billthedrill]

I want to know more about the Los Gatos water heater.

[I-ambush]

Didn’t know 2003 was a presidential election year.

[Worldtraveler once upon a time]

A review from Standard UK is republished in MSN, which does this regularly.

From the review: "I’m not saying that a 400-year-old play and a 22-year-old record have been made relevant for ‘the kids’ – this is more for the despairingly liberal, chin-stroking middle aged."

So much therapy for the "despairingly liberal, chin-stroking middle aged" these days.

Great Britain is now just Britain, and soon London will be London-istan.

[Old West Conservative]

2003?

Do the posters even read before they post?

[MotorCityBuck]

I have no idea what this thread is about. So...For your listening pleasure..
Radiohead - Creep

https://youtu.be/XFkzRNyygfk?si=jLk3_yLHxgM3oaLt

[MotorCityBuck]

I wanna what The Cats Know about water heaters.

[nickcarraway]

This article was from this week. The NYT had a similar article today. Yes, I read it.