Grand Theft Hamlet

A documentary staged entirely within the confines of the online world of Grand Theft Auto might sound like a gimmick, but Grand Theft Hamlet quickly transcends its schtick to become a moving reflection on art-making during the pandemic.

Crane and Oosterveen, represented by virtual avatars, hold auditions with strangers in the game (including one green lizard-suited player who seems insistent on trolling but soon becomes the cast’s bodyguard), and choose settings for their sprawling virtual production. They assemble an unlikely crew of gamers-turned-actors and actors-turned-gamers, running into the familiar roadblocks of staging a small production — schedule conflicts, courting an audience — alongside some Grand Theft Auto (GTA)-specific ones, like how to prevent the actors from getting killed while they’re rehearsing.

The casual violence of the game, which revolves around stealing cars, recklessly wielding firearms, and punching non-player characters with no motivation other than havoc, makes a natural home in the Bard’s bloody work. It also leads to some acutely funny moments, like when Crane’s character is unceremoniously slain while trying to hold auditions. The crime-ridden faux-city of Los Santos serves at once as an escape from the hellish landscape of real life in the pandemic and a poetic reflection of it. The actors lament the apparent death of their art form while catching stray bullets from a 14-year-old behind a computer.

At some points, the stagey-ness of the documentary is a little too thick and sometimes feels scripted, but theater kids are wont to play it up for the camera, even if the camera is actually a screen-recording mechanism.

The experiment of Grand Theft Hamlet feels like the dream slash nightmare of every artist who lived through the worst of Covid. With no direct route to their usual mode of creation, they must make do with the tools available to them. It’s satisfying to see one of these pandemic projects to its completion, making the viewer rest a little easier knowing that art indeed will find a way.