As someone who during the pandemic found solace in watching videos of gameplay fails and people play walkthroughs of games I didn’t have myself/couldn’t afford to have there was something inherently interesting about creating an adaptation of Shakespeare within the world of Grand Theft Auto – presenting Grand Theft Hamlet. It’s possible my anticipation for this was simply too high, or I was expecting a literal retelling of Hamlet within the world of GTA online, and nothing else but what Sam Crane and Pinny Grylls created is something more, less, and everything in between and it truly is something you just have to see to believe.
The entire idea for this came from when Sam and his friend Mark Oosterveen playing Hamlet and Polonius respectfully were playing Grand Theft Auto online and found a setting within the game that was a giant sound stage (like a small Hollywood bowl, I think in the game its quiet literally called the Vinewood Bowl) and decided they could do a play/an act of theatre in this space because they both came from an acting background and due to the pandemic they were unable to perform. Sam and his wife Pinny (who plays the filmmaker within the online community) decide to document their process of trying to create Hamlet within the world of Grand Theft Auto Online and all the ups and downs that come from this experiment.
To call this an experiment I think is fair, its an experimental documentary not in style of filmmaking but subject matter and medium. They don’t just retell Hamlet – something I was anticipating based on snippets and what I’ve seen, but rather discussed the idea of making Hamlet within GTA Online, the process of doing so, a little bit of performing and the sheer unhinged chaos that flows from a relatively unchecked online community of gamers doing what they want when they want. Bringing art within another art space is a compelling story, but crafting it in an open world, battling outside interference and everything else is creative and intriguing and watching the parts of Hamlet retelling with police chases, shootouts, and general chaos brings forth a new insight into the reading of the Shakespeare classic and opens a new way to see how audiences interact with something poetic trying to come out of their online world of chaos, prostitution and unwinding from their own chaos around them.
While Grand Theft Hamlet takes monumental swings that land anywhere between a foul and a home run, there is no way not to admire the brash and unconventional ideas and execution that Crane and Grylls have brought forward to create this bizarre documentary about the telling of a Shakespearean classic on one of the most unconventional platforms of doing so of all time. Grand Theft Hamlet is a daring watch that touches upon the complications, the execution, and the importance of community during time of hardship.
