“Something is rotten in the state of Denmark,” Marcellus tells Horatio early in William Shakespeare’s “Hamlet”. The line is a window into the moral rot at the centre of the grasp for power that the play hinges on. The line takes on a different meaning when the setting is transposed from Denmark to the fictional state of San Andreas, based on Southern California, in the game Grand Theft Auto. Grand Theft Auto is an action-adventure video game set in a desolate urbanised location where the protagonist completes missions and side-quests to rise through a criminal underworld. The game, named after the act of motor vehicle theft, examines other kinds of criminality than the murder and subterfuge of Shakespeare’s Denmark. Out-of-work actors Sam Crane and Mark Oosterveen cast and produced a live virtual production of Shakespeare’s “Hamlet” in the world of Grand Theft Auto, and Shakespeare’s play suddenly became the site for an intriguing merging of classic drama and new technology turning “Grand Theft Hamlet” into a thoughtful, and surprisingly emotionally resonant work of art.
Crane co-directed the documentary with Pinny Grylls, which is set completely within the world of Grand Theft Auto. We hear curated conversations from Sam, Mark, and their friends but the entire visual world of “Grand Theft Hamlet”, except for a very brief epilogue, features avatars within Grand Theft Auto existing in the diegesis of the game as the documentary slowly but tenderly surveys the state of life and living during one of the UK’s COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns in 2021. Sam and Mark are full of uncertainty and malaise about their professional futures when we meet them in lockdown playing Grand Theft Auto at the beginning of “Grand Theft Hamlet”. Earlier in March marked five years since most of the world went into varying stages of lockdown as the COVID-19 virus spread, and there’s a sharp historical component to watching the recent history of our global isolation presented so starkly on screen. When the two men accidentally come across a quasi-theatrical space in the GTA world of San Andreas, they jokingly consider staging a play there. The joke soon gives way to reality and the men embark on the ambitious plan to stage and produce a production of “Hamlet” – complete with auditions, rehearsals, and an opening night.
A sharp element of playfulness and joyful make-believe accompanies these first few sequences in the documentary. Neither Mark nor Sam has strong connections in the GTA world and so they depend on random appearances from strangers willing to contribute to their dreams of a full production. The early audition sequences, which feature appearances from an alien avatar and come complete with listlessly watching NPCs and figures intent on murdering their in-game characters, are an immediate lesson in the challenges of trying to stage something as organised as rehearsals amidst the unpredictability of the in-game GTA universe. But the unpredictability is a constant reminder that the word “play” – whether referring to the gameplaying of the videogames or the act of pretending necessary for drama – depends on a kind of ceding to joy and playfulness that becomes essential as the rehearsals get underway. The first third of “Grand Theft Hamlet” joyously takes advantage of the ironies and contrasts of audition pieces from the Quran, Shakespeare’s “Macbeth” and other literary sources as monologues set during the GTA world. It’s a gentle, but assured, reminder that any site can become a site for theatre when performers come together.
As the film goes on, “Grand Theft Hamlet” becomes a sobering and even resonant recounting of the relationship between playacting as art and the imaginative dreamscape that role-playing in the GTA universe requires. As the film continues, so do its more serious contemplations on how the loneliness and isolation of the COVID-19 pandemic leaves Sam, Mark, and those they interact with yearning for human connection amidst the physical distance demanded by the dynamics of the lockdowns. Suddenly, the specific intentions of staging “Hamlet” become a symbol for a group of people struggling to reach out and connect during a dark time in our recent history. Seeing the avatars move through the GTA world interacting with aliens, falling off blimps, and trying to avoid being killed by random gamers adds an element of fanciful delight to the game and identifies “Grand Theft Hamlet” with a sharp level of pathos which is further emphasised by the whispered observations when characters who cannot meet in real life wistfully take joy in “being together” in the virtual space of the GTA universe.
Sam and Mark’s quest, which initially begins as a playful lark, develops into a major chance for their artistic prowess and desires to be realised in a virtual world. As the film goes on, we begin to find emotional acuity in the ways Sam and Mark must navigate the danger of the San Andreas world to find a safe space for their rehearsals and production. One begins to imagine the way that protests against new and varied approaches to art and theatre are repressed in a modern society that prioritises capitalistic urges, unartistic approaches to living, and AI as the boons of development amidst so many artistic possibilities. Viewed through these lenses, the intentions of the production become even more meaningful and cogent and the breathless excitement that the cast has navigating the pitfalls of the GTA world in their quest for theatrical excellence becomes incredibly moving and tender.
By the time the film ends, signalling an opening of the world and a return to “normalcy” after lockdown the artist’s plight in a cruel world does not seem very dissimilar from the artistic urges that contrast with the barren desolation of the GTA’s San Andreas. Even with the consistently distancing effect of seeing our characters only through their avatars in the game-world, “Grand Theft Hamlet” can stir real and sincere emotions in considering how Shakespeare’s poetry and emotional candour can turn even the world of a video game into a stage fit for artistic expression.
Grand Theft Hamlet is available for streaming and purchase on MUBI
