How do you stage a Shakespeare play in the midst of a global pandemic? British actor Sam Crane wasn’t sure, but he knew he was tired of looking at Zoom screens. His determination to find a creative outlet without falling prey to soulless pandemic tropes led him to stage his own production of “Hamlet” in the expansive virtual world of “Grand Theft Auto Online” – a very different kind of canvas .
His creative process — from casting actors whose faces he’s never seen to having his avatar recorded by internet strangers during rehearsals — is the subject of “Grand Theft Hamlet,” a documentary he made with his partner Pinny Grylls turned. Filmed entirely in video game, “Grand Theft Hamlet” is a portrait of artists struggling to balance their craft and their personal lives in difficult times. The film won the Documentary Jury Award at SXSW 2024 and will be released in theaters by MUBI in January 2025.
In an interview with IndieWire, Grylls and Crane reflected on the unique experience of conducting private rehearsals as part of a public game.
“It’s just as challenging as it was when Shakespeare put on a new production at the Globe,” Grylls said. “He didn’t know if people would like his new play, ‘Romeo and Juliet’ or ‘Hamlet.'” People would probably come by and sell apples, and if people didn’t like it [the actors] they would throw them at her. And that’s exactly where we were. These guys didn’t care, they hadn’t paid $100 for a ticket. If they thought we were shit, they would just run away or shoot us or throw something at us. And I liked it…
