Oh boy. This is something that I have been looking forward to for something like nine months now. The idea of Thom Yorke pulling apart Hail To The Thief and putting it back together again around Hamlet is so up my street that I’m still not quite I’ve not manifested it into existence. Quite late in the run, we make a weekend out of Stratford upon Avon and my god was it worth it. The set, beginning with blazers hung from the ceiling, is comparatively minimal but brought to life through multiple levels and amps in place of theatrical blocks. The lights go down, the ominous tick of the drum machine behind 2+2=5 kicks in, and we begin. It’s a tightly edited script, bringing a 4 hour epic into about 1h40, and so it does rely on some familiarity with the play, but I found it an effective abridgement. Musically, the band are obviously not quite Radiohead, but they are good. Yorke’s arrangements/orchestrations do the whole thing justice, and I’m fairly certain every song but A Punchup At A Wedding is accounted for in one form or another - some, like The Gloaming, get used as ambience; others like Scatterbrain and Sail To The Moon, both in emotional peaks of the show, get treated pretty much in full. I think the highest praise I can give HHTTT is that it would absolutely hold its own as a top class production of Hamlet even without the Radiohead involvement, never giving the impression of a cheap, quick crossover. The cast are top notch, the direction zips it along nicely, and the production values are incredible. As the bombast of the second half of A Wolf At The Door rises in volume and intensity for the final crescendo of the show, it’s hard not to feel swept away.