NO sooner has what’s left of Richard III been buried in Leicester Cathedral than his resurrection comes in a Swedish Rick’n’roll opera in London’s East End.

Viper Island Production, in tandem with London producers From Sweden Productions, will present the premiere of RichardRocks in a five-week run from October 3 in the art deco theatre of the Great Hall of The People’s Palace, University of London, in Mile End Road.

RichardRocks will throw 35 original songs, a cast of 28, cutting-edge lighting, sound design, video and computer animation at a musical inspired by both Shakespeare’s Richard III and by Al Pacino’s 1996 film, Looking For Richard.

England’s last Plantagenet king/Shakespeare’s most infamous villain will be brought back to stage life through music by Peter Robsahm and a book and lyrics by Maria Robsahm in Staffan Aspegren’s Scandi-noir production.

The likes of Pacino, Laurence Olivier, Ian McKellen, Antony Sher, Kenneth Branagh, Martin Freeman, Kevin Spacey, Mark Rylance, Peter Cook in Blackadder, and soon Benedict Cumberbatch in BBC2’s The Hollow Crown series, have all played the Yorkist king.

To that list now add Swedish musical theatre star Fred Johanson, who has appeared on the Scandinavian and West End stage as Peron in Evita, Javert in Les Miserables, The Beast in Disney’s Beauty And The Beast, Louis B Meyer in Garbo and Pontius Pilate in Jesus Christ Superstar.

“Don’t expect this Richard to be a hunchback with a bad haircut,” warns writer Maria Robsahm.

“Our Richard is a manipulative Machiavellian prince; a modern psychopath. Externally he is charismatic, handsome and witty. It’s inside – morally and psychologically – that he’s distorted. He knows how to get what he wants, whatever the cost. He sees the people around him either as a means to an end or as obstacles to be removed.”

What lies in store from composer Peter Robsahm?

“The story of Richard III has often been reduced to a one-man-show portraying evil, and no doubt the question of evil is very interesting, but how does it feel to be a boy of 13 suddenly becoming king? And how does it feel to be a mother and realise your son has done horrible things?” he says. “I was also interested in the people around Richard.

“RichardRocks is something out of the ordinary, both artistically and technologically. The music combines heavy rock with beautiful harmonies of a more classical cut.”

In layman’s terms, Robsahm’s musical flavours range from German metal band Rammstein, Deep Purple, The Kinks and Eminem to Beethoven, Tchaikovsky and Elgar. At least it won’t be the winter of our discotheque.

• RichardRocks rules from October 3 to November 7 2015. Performances: Tuesday to Saturday, 7.30pm; Saturdays, 2.30pm; Sundays, 5pm.

Tickets: richardrocks.com