Grand Theft Hamlet

Grand Theft Hamlet, directed by English actor Sam Crane and documentary filmmaker Pinny Grylls, captures the staging of Shakespeare’s Hamlet inside the Grand Theft Auto (GTA) during the UK’s January 2021 lockdown. It is set in the game’s realistic, scenic world, Los Santos, where COVID-19 is only a surreal, distant tale. Unemployed and demoralized, Crane and actor Mark Oosterveen use game engines to create a cinematic piece, transforming a dystopian, anarchical gaming universe fueled by mindless violence, into an alternative performance space for classical theatrical production when physical performance is not available because of the lockdown restrictions. The choice to perform Hamlet—a classic story full of doubt and moral struggle—inside a violent, chaotic video game world is both ironic and resonant. The cast, recruited from GTA’s eclectic mix of gamers, are not professional performers, but rather virtual refugees of lockdown reality, who have an amateur passion for theater. The eventual successful production of Grand Theft Hamlet inside the game proves that community and creativity can still be found in an alternate format.

A game like GTA, therefore, provides a pandemic escapism, but also cruelly forces players to face the constant disillusionment: “God, I wish I was actually on a beach, and I was able to just stroll into the sea and cool off”(0:02:46–0:02:57), Crane says as he manipulates his online avatar to go for a swim in the game. When meanings, whether artistic or social, are vulnerably forged between digital avatars—to be or not to be? Hamlet’s cynicism reflects a certain extent of this lockdown frustration, as Crane and Oosterveen struggle with their lives in a disrupted pandemic world. This documentary demonstrates the thriving artistic potential of unconventional reproduction of traditional art forms (for theater being an intimate form of performing art that requires a live audience in a specific place, theater organizations like the National Theatre turned to digital programming during the COVID-19 pandemic). Shot entirely within the video game, the documentary also explores the technical possibility of machinima—a form of cinematic production that uses real-time computer graphics engines to create films, offering an innovative glimpse into artistic output under the new normal.