Watercooler Pick

Grand Theft Hamlet
- Movie
- Where to Find It: Mubi
- Rating: TV-MA
- Release Date: January 17, 2024
- Runtime: 91 minutes
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A pair of pandemic-bound, out-of-work actors set out to stage a production of Shakespeare’s Hamlet in the online video game world of Grand Theft Auto.
The force behind this project is stage actor Sam Crane, known for his role as Harry in the West End production of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, and Mark Oosterveen, whose most recent on-screen work is in The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare. They’re joined by in-game / real-life director Pinny Grylls, a documentarian and Crane’s partner.

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.
Grand Theft Hamlet is a testament to the relentless and pure desire to make art — it might not be convenient, it might not make sense, it might not even be well-received, but that’s not going to stop those who want to make it. The result is a touching and funny doc that justifies its experiments in form.
Grand Theft Hamlet plays better to Shakespeare fans and struggling artists than it does to GTA regulars, who might not be as surprised by the game’s internal poetry. All will find humor, though, and some will find a new itch to fire up their Xbox.
Where to stream Grand Theft Hamlet: Mubi
- Moods: find me fun, inspire me, make me laugh
- Interests: documentary, fantasy, true stories

JR Atkinson
