Grand Theft Hamlet

Lockdown played havoc with so many lives, but professionally none more so than those in the entertainment industry. With theatres and cinemas all closed, their livelihoods dried up and a serious degree of ennui crept in to their day to day lives. One escape from that was "Grand Theft Auto" and that's where we meet jobbing actors Sam Crane and Mark Oosterveen. Two forty-somethings who were dealing with this situation by shooting as many folks as they could online. The former lives with Pinny and has a couple of kids, the latter lives on his own and is struggling to find some sort of motivation. It's whilst playing the game one day that they find an outdoor auditorium and hit on the idea of performing "Hamlet" there. Swiftly they realise that standing on the stage belting out the best of the bard is only going to get their characters shot, then that two folks aren't going to be able to cover all the roles - so they embark on a project to recruit other players to fill the roles. What now ensues sees these men introduced to some serious would-be Thespians, some folks who think he wrote "Harry Potter" and some generally eclectic characters who all decide that this can be done after all. I'm not sure Shakespeare could ever have envisaged his play being put on using warplanes or giant blimps whilst the actors faced real peril (though I am sure we've all seen plays on stage where that might have been a benefit!) but as the two men start to become more absorbed with there mission it starts to become just as compelling to watch. Can they do it? How is their obsession impacting on their "real" lives? I have never played GTA in my life so was a little apprehensive that not knowing the game might impact on my enjoyment. It didn't at all, indeed that proved quite a fun template for their scenario as the mix of characters they encountered showed quite clearly that these men were not the only ones adrift in a closed-down world. As you'd expect, it is a quickly paced affair and I thought well worth and hour and a half.

Grand Theft Hamlet is a hilarious, moving, and inspiring documentary where just reading the premise catches your interest.

The documentary takes place in January 2021, and the UK is still in lockdown due to COVID-19; to pass a massive amount of time, two actors, Sam Crane and Mark Oosterveen, decide to play Grand Theft Auto Online. While playing through the game, they find an area in the game almost hard to find, an amphitheater, called The Vinewood Bowl (inspired by the real-life Hollywood Bowl in LA), which serves as a concert and event venue. A funny idea came through this discovery - a digital production of Hamlet. They decide to act out a few monologues from the play, which results in hilarious moments where they get interrupted by other players who open fire on them, so they shoot back, and then the SWAT team quickly arrives at the scene to further escalate the chaos. The funny thing is that he is still delivering his soliloquy while shooting at the police.

The entire documentary is in the video game, and the game-play footage is recorded.

However, a funny idea turns into a serious project. The plan is to do the entire play of Hamlet through GTA, set up auditions in the online game to get people on board, do rehearsals, block it, and eventually live-stream the event. But this comes with its challenges and difficulties, such as organizing production in the video game world. Whether that is problems with the Internet connection, availability, or other players interrupting the rehearsal, it all becomes a massive headache and takes a toll on everyone involved.

The funniest part of the documentary is the ridiculousness of it all. There were plenty of laughs from everyone, me included. But what surprised me was how personal and, oddly enough, thought-provoking.

There comes a point when they question why they are doing this and why this silly idea is causing much stress. Some of them have families to provide for, and others have jobs. But for some, it gives them a purpose, a drive, and a therapeutic escapism. So, this stupid thing is giving someone a reason to keep going. Or one part where a cast member, who is trans, finds a deep connection to the play and character of Hamlet because when they came out to their family members as trans, they realised they don't know their proper characters until the ugly truth. They become more distant than before.

Shakespeare's text still has relevance - and what amazes me is the different interpretations people can get from the play. While watching, it made me reflect on certain things. Yep, Grand Theft Hamlet made me reflect on things.

After the screening, we had a short Q&A with Mark Oosterveen. I have never been to a Q&A before, and I am glad I stayed around because I learned a lot more about the doc. Mark said something compelling about his acting style in this, which is a mixture of puppetry (controlling your avatar in the game) and voice work (using a headset mic to talk online). But what is even more insane and unreal is that the Royal Shakespeare Company contacted them asking if they had the recorded live-stream performance so they could show it to younger people and get them interested in Shakespeare. Not bad.

Overall rating: The most wild and wonderful documentaries out there.

When I first started watching this film, I'll admit, I wasn't expecting much. As a fan of video game walkthroughs, I feared it would simply be another standard take on people playing in their respective digital worlds. Thankfully, I was proven wrong, and what unfolded was an emotional journey that kept me hooked.

Watching it, whilst remembering the context of the time it was 'filmed' adds an extra layer of depth to the experience. The film resonates more when you remember the world we were living in during that period.

There's a lot of fun to be had, especially with the video game slapstick humor. What really stands out, however, are the performances-some truly fine actors navigating both the real and virtual worlds, each delivering their craft in unique and compelling ways.

This film is surprising and genuinely enjoyable. I'd recommend it to anyone fascinated by virtual worlds, but also to those who appreciate the underlying struggles we try to suppress in the real world.

Grand Theft Hamlet attempts something with exciting potential, yet the film's interpretation of Hamlet remains rather weak. Although the production explains the reasons for this within the film itself, it still leaves the impression that an even stronger and more nuanced adaptation could have been achieved with very little additional effort. In this regard, the film does not provide a fully satisfying cohesion as a Hamlet interpretation, yet it presents its innovative concept to the audience openly, without hiding its flaws and the reasons behind them.

Games are seen by many as both a poor means of self-expression and the lowest form of art, but this is likely to change.

It is a time of COVID lockdowns; movie theaters are closed, untold film and TV projects are on hold, and there is little else to do than sit inside and talk to people on Discord. Sam and Mark, two English actors short on work who frequently play Grand Theft Auto Online together, get this idea: What if we staged Shakespeare's Hamlet in the game world, tried to get the other players to join the production, and made a movie out of that?

Such is the story of Grand Theft Hamlet, one of the most vindicating movies of the year for someone who used to make movies in GTA V Director Mode and Rockstar Editor, much to the chagrin of my brother and whoever else wanted to use the main family computer at a given time circa 2017.

Well, who's laughing now? A bunch of people made a GTA film (utilizing regular screen recordings instead of adjusting the angles and lighting in Rockstar Editor, but still) that played at legitimate film festivals, including South by Southwest '24, and had a limited theatrical run in early 2025 before hitting MUBI. I was ahead of my time, bitches!

In all seriousness, this is a funny and often clever little film that reminds one of 2022's We Met in Virtual Reality, a documentary "filmed" entirely in VRChat that elucidated how much more "real" the virtual world -- where you can design avatars that express the inner you to any degree that you please -- can be to some people than the actually real one. Here, though, the humour often comes from what the virtual world CANNOT do for us; rarely has Hamlet been recited with such restricted movements and unforeseeable external circumstances, e.g the arrival of a random nude alien who kills the auditioners.

You may think it's good that neither this nor We Met in Virtual Reality (both products of the social distancing years) became the future of filmmaking and expression. But considering the future we ended up in -- where people mistake generating AI slop for "making indie movies" -- I think I would've liked the other future better. Is it too late to ask Rockstar to start giving a hoot about Red Dead Online so that my friends and I can perform The Tempest in it?