Thom Yorke pictured in rehearsal for Hamlet Hail to the Thief in London

Thom Yorke is in the first rehearsal photographs from the London run of Hamlet Hail to the Thief, which the Barbican released on Wednesday 14 October, ahead of the opening at its theatre on 31 October. Manuel Harlan took them, and West End Theatre has published all 17.

Yorke made the show with Christine Jones and Steven Hoggett, and the actors and musicians play his rearrangement of Hail to the Thief live on stage. The pictures credit him as co-creator and orchestrator. Jones and Hoggett, the co-creators and co-directors, appear together and each on their own.

The pictures also name the choreographer, Jess Williams, seen once with the whole company and once with Samuel Blenkin, who plays Hamlet again. Ami Tredrea, the Ophelia, is pictured with Paul Hilton, the Claudius and Ghost, and Claudia Harrison appears as Gertrude. From the band, the drummer Shane Forbes has a frame to himself, and the guitarists Jenny Clifford and Adam Martin share one.

The Barbican run is the London premiere, after the world premiere in Manchester, at Aviva Studios, in 2025 and a run with the Royal Shakespeare Company. The cast is the one announced in September. The original band returns too, joined by two cover singers, Josephina Ortiz Lewis and Emilio Moreno Arias.