When we think of Shakespeare, we tend to think of large amphitheaters of trained actors waxing poetic in outdated language few can understand. But while people have their own associations with the bard, Grand Theft Auto is likely the last thing they would think of.
The idea came about in 2020, when husband and wife Pinny Grylls, known as Rustless Zither, and Sam Crane, known as Rustic Mascara, were stuck in the isolation of lockdown. The two aspiring actors, directors, and professional documentarians found that their typical visual modalities of finance were going to be shut down for the foreseeable future. They were avid players of the video game Grand Theft Auto Online, and decided to get their group of online friends that play the game with them to do a reenactment of “Hamlet.” Given their professional experience, Grylls and Crane made a documentary on their production within the game. They called it “Grand Theft Hamlet.”
In Grand Theft Auto Online, the playable characters have cameras that can be used as recording devices for making movies that can be downloaded from the game. While this aspect of the game has been known by fans for a while, Grylls and Crane decided to film their performance of Hamlet entirely using this in-game recording system. These cameras can shoot from different angles, perspectives, and even aspect ratios—the only aspect of recording that the filmmakers produced outside of the game was the audio, which they captured with microphones. This is how Grylls and Crane filmed their production, using the many dynamic cameras within the game that they reenacted with their personal in-game avatars. By simply using features within the game, they were able to make an entire production of one of Shakespeare’s most famous plays.
The documentary follows how an entire theatrical production could be created within the constraints of a video game. It focuses only on the analysis of Grand Theft Auto as a new medium and the seriousness of “Hamlet” as a dramatic play. There is also a slapstick element to the documentary, which comes from their attempts to put on a production of “Hamlet” in one of the most violent video games of the 2010s. Explosions can be heard in the distance as Grylls and Crane attempt to speak lines in iambic pentameter.
The timing of this documentary is not an accident. Especially with the rise of AI, it is important to differentiate what technological medium is actually able to produce art. Instead of plugging in an input of texts to get an algorithm to produce a movie of its own, the documentary shows that something like Grand Theft Auto can be a tool for making art. Editing softwares and scriptwriting templates are already in common use within Hollywood itself, so it is important to differentiate between tool and generator.
After all, animation has been a growing medium since the early 2000s, and is typically filmed in specific softwares. This documentary proves that using Grand Theft Auto Online is the same as using animation softwares such as MAYA and Blender.
Grand Theft Hamlet originally premiered at the Vancouver International Film Festival on Sept. 26 as well as the BFI London Film Festival on Oct. 9. The documentary was released in select theaters in England and in Ireland on Dec. 6, 2024. However, in terms of streaming, Grand Theft Hamlet will be released in Jan. 2025.
Exploring the evolution of art is necessary because mediums will change as the world does. After all, stories used to be interpreted through the written word and then evolved into plays. Plays then evolved into movies, and movies then evolved into the storytelling used in video games. “Grand Theft Hamlet” is a documentary that shines a light on where the artistic community is going, and will open the opportunity for more of Shakespeare’s work to be introduced to today’s zeitgeist.