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How do you keep Shakespeare fresh after 400 years? Two actors found an unexpected answer inside the computer game Grand Theft Auto (GTA).
Prevented from working by the Covid pandemic, Sam Crane and Mark Oosterveen turned to online gaming.
The UK-based pair decided to put on a virtual production of Hamlet inside the online version of GTA.
It would be the first time in the play’s 400-year history the actors needed to be protected by a fighter jet – especially one piloted by a luminous green alien.
GTA is notorious for its violent content – and its bloodshed certainly fits the plot of the original play, in which (spoiler) almost everyone dies.
The actors’ attempt to bring theatre to the gaming world inspired Crane’s wife, filmmaker Pinny Grylls, to create a documentary called Grand Theft Hamlet.
Shot entirely in game, the film presents Grylls, Crane, and Oosterveen as their onscreen avatars – controlled and voiced by their real-world selves – as they attempt to cast and produce the play in GTA.
As with any real-life play, the production began with auditions.
This is an irreplaceable experience that speaks volumes about following your dreams despite the challenges that await.
The film’s success continued at the British Independent Film Awards on Sunday, with Crane and Grylls jointly winning the best debut director (feature documentary) category.
And without spoiling the final performance of Hamlet in GTA, one scene is staged atop a blimp.
It is a spectacular metaphor of ambition (even as some actors and audience members accidentally fall to their deaths).
In the words of Shakespeare: “All the world’s a stage”.
Grand Theft Hamlet is released in UK and Irish cinemas on 6 December, then streaming globally on Mubi in early 2025.
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