Grand Theft Hamlet review: something's amiss

      “Grand Theft Hamlet is preoccupied with contrasting high art and low art, missing the opportunity to leverage the shared communal nature inherent in both games and theater.”

      **Pros:**

      - Excellent supporting cast

      - In-game visuals appear natural

      - The communal essence of theater and gaming

      **Cons:**

      - Lacks direction

      - Insufficient representation of the actual play

      - The debate on high versus low art

      There’s a reason the works of William Shakespeare maintain such cultural relevance more than 400 years after his passing. His narratives—spanning histories, comedies, and tragedies—offer deeply relatable insights into the human experience in all its complexity. Thus, Romeo and Juliet can adapt into a musical set in 1950s New York, or Macbeth can be reimagined in feudal Japan. Shakespeare's works are timeless, so why wouldn't they work in a video game format?

      That’s the premise of Grand Theft Hamlet, a documentary that follows two actors as they navigate the challenges of producing Shakespeare’s renowned tragedy entirely within Rockstar’s multiplayer world, Grand Theft Auto Online, during the pandemic. While the backdrop of staging an existential drama amid pandemic uncertainty captivates, the documentary only touches on this struggle within its quick 91-minute runtime.

      Grand Theft Hamlet oscillates between high-minded reflections on life (which would make Hamlet proud) and humorous depictions of just how absurd video games can appear when set against the lofty realm of theater. However, the human connections that highlight the universal longing for community, which both theater and online gaming fulfill, often get overlooked.

      Anyone can act

      The film opens with out-of-work actors Sam Crane and Mark Oosterveen engaged in a session of Grand Theft Auto Online. In the midst of a police chase—recorded entirely in-game—they discover the Vinewood Bowl, a large outdoor amphitheater. After performing some monologues and having fun, they come up with the idea to stage a live rendition of Hamlet there. With no acting opportunities during the UK’s 2021 lockdown, the timing seems perfect. However, the logistics soon reveal multiple challenges.

      The first obstacle is assembling a cast. A full Hamlet production necessitates approximately two dozen actors unless some can take on multiple roles. Initial attempts to recruit random players prove disastrous, featuring many exaggerated on-screen deaths from potential auditioners, which prompts Crane and Oosterveen to reach out online. This strategy proves much more fruitful, attracting a modest group of eager participants.

      The auditions represent a standout moment in Grand Theft Hamlet. During brief interviews, we get acquainted with the eclectic group that ultimately becomes the cast, including a professional voice actor (Jen Cohn from Overwatch), full-time parents, close friends of Crane and Oosterveen, and a literary agent using her nephew’s account to pursue a long-held acting ambition. Some auditionees fully embody their parts with costumes, while others synchronize dramatic knife slashes with key moments in their monologues. Observing the digital avatars awkwardly express Shakespearean dialogue through messy voice chat is initially disconcerting but soon aligns with the timelessness of the script's inherent beauty. The concept might just succeed.

      Yet these meaningful moments are countered by the chaos of performing in the unpredictable environment of Grand Theft Auto. Gunfire erupts, actors unintentionally "kill" one another mid-performance, and eventually, the police arrive to disrupt the action. This tension between high and low art is a central theme of Grand Theft Hamlet. While Crane and Oosterveen assert that this chaotic atmosphere mirrors the true essence of a Shakespearean experience, the film’s approach often merely uses the violence of Los Santos for comedic effect. Each accidental death prompts a chuckle, detracting from their claims that they are faithfully recreating the experience of witnessing Hamlet at The Old Globe, framing it instead as a comparison between the gravitas of theater and the levity of gaming.

      Reality and fiction blend

      There’s a compelling aspect to how the relentless incidents of death in Grand Theft Hamlet resonate with the feelings experienced throughout the Covid-19 pandemic. Crane, Oosterveen, and their assembled cast work to create something meaningful against a backdrop of profound loss. Interspersed between rehearsal scenes, reality seeps into Grand Theft Auto Online. In a poignant exchange between Oosterveen and Pinny Grylls (co-director of the documentary and Crane’s wife), Oosterveen shares the somber news of losing his last living relative. Though they exist together in the digital realm, he remains alone in his apartment, encapsulating a profound sense of isolation—it's heart-wrenching.

      These glimpses of reality frequently disrupt the ongoing production of Hamlet, often as significantly as the mayhem pervasive in Grand Theft Auto Online. At one point, their Hamlet shares he has accepted a job and must abandon the project due to time constraints. This leads to a heated argument between Crane and Oosterveen in a subway station alive with the sounds of arriving and departing trains. They question the worth