Pinny Grylls and Sam Crane on bringing Shakespeare’s infamous tragedy to life inside the world of Grand Theft Auto
William Shakespeare wrote Hamlet (originally The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark) between 1599 and 1601, and it became widely known as his most famous, longest and perhaps his most crushing play. Set in Denmark, the story goes that Hamlet attempts to plot his revenge against Claudius, his uncle, who murdered Hamlet’s father so that he could seize the throne and marry Hamlet’s mother. Themes of grief, revenge and existential despair, combined with complex characters, poetic language and philosophical depth have garnered it one of the most powerful tragedies in the English language, and an iconic play to be performed on the West End at that. Its audience engagement and profound soliloquies – with each performance bringing a new, fresh interpretation – creates an intensity that many may think cannot be replicated off the stage.
So to hear that the play has been performed in Grand Theft Auto – a video game series known for its graphic violence, car stealing and reaping general havoc on across cities such as Los Santos and San Fierro – may come as a bit of surprise. But this is precisely what filmmaker Pinny Grylls and actor Sam Crane (who are also a married couple) achieved with their new documentary, Grand Theft Hamlet, which shows the trials and tribulations of attempting to put on a full production of Shakespeare’s Hamlet inside the game… and, of course, succeeding.
The idea for the project first arose In January 2021, when the UK was placed under its third lockdown. And despite a sprinkling of hope – with certain things opening up for a short while – theatres remained closed. “There was a real feeling that live performance might never come back,” says Crane, who was rehearsing to play Harry Potter in the West End production of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child before it was unfortunately halted. Grylls was similarly pessimistic about the industry, and thought “this is going to go on forever”. They spent their pandemic days at home with their kids, who were 10 and 12 at the time and, like the rest of us, glued to their screens for school, entertainment or to catch up with their friends. Curious to know what piqued their interests, their son told them all about a YouTuber called Dream, who was creating his own world and fictional narratives inside Minecraft. “The fact that you could do this in an online computer game totally blew my mind,” shares Crane. “I started going down this rabbit hole of looking at role-playing inside online gaming, and discovered there were a lot of people doing similar things inside GTA […] We thought, why not stage a performance here?”
Los Santos turned out to be the ideal setting for Hamlet – “It’s the rotten state of Denmark!” shared Grylls – as there was something distinctively Shakespearean about the world it depicted. “The themes of theft, betrayal and chaos all felt so fitting for the story,” she adds. And so they began testing out their idea, kicking off with small experiments like an impromptu performance of Hamlet’s opening scene. “It was absolute carnage,” Crane admits. “But also really fun.” Encouraged by their initial attempts, they decided to scale up, auditioning other players in the game to form a virtual cast and rehearsing within GTA’s detailed environments – just like you would on stage. Only in this world, you have countless locations; or as Grylls puts it, “We’ve got the whole game to explore!”
Setting a production of Hamlet inside GTA, though, doesn’t come without its challenges. The first of which was to adapt the physical play in order for it in the digital landscape. To make it suitable, the team decided to eschew traditional staging in favour of a promenade-style approach, taking full advantage of GTA’s vast and varied settings. This means that the audience, or background characters, will move to follow the performers around the space. As Grylls explains, “The game has such rich environments with incredible locations – we wanted to use the game for what it had. We didn’t want to restrict ourselves to one theatrical location.” Key scenes were reimagined to fit this unconventional medium: Hamlet’s encounter with his father’s ghost, for instance, was staged atop a blimp, while the infamous duel with Laertes unfolded in a makeshift arena.
When it came to the fight between Hamlet and Laertes, naturally, they wanted to toss in a few punches and include some heart-racing action. But, as you have it, the game restricts the use of weapons in some of its interior spaces. “We had to find a location that had a feeling of being inside, but wasn’t. We had to make sure we both ate enough snacks before that scene.”
The documentary itself, shot entirely within the game, also posed additional technical and artistic hurdles. Especially since Grylls was determined to bring a cinematic quality to the look of a typical gaming video. “You need to make it engaging,” she says. “The avatars are like puppets being manipulated by real people. We had to find a way of making them emotive and relatable.” To do as such, they used a combination of in-game cameras and techniques: this includes a first-person viewpoint in the scene with other avatars, as well as the camera on your phone that allows you to make close-ups – this helps to develop a “cinematic language and introduce something that feels like it goes beyond a YouTube video or footage of people playing games,” she explains. Yet the biggest hurdle, perhaps, was the sheer amount of footage they amassed over the course of their production, which put a big dent into the editing process. “In a way, we had too many choices,” explains Grylls. Over a hot summer and with some assistance, they were able to filter through the “chaotic footage” and refine the story they wanted to tell.
The film has been well received since its premiere at SXSW 2024, with runs across the festival circuit including Hot Docs 2024, CPH:DOX 2024, BFI London Film Festival and many others. It also had various nominations, including four for British Independent Film Awards, and it is now available to watch on the big screen in UK cinemas, ahead of its release on MUBI in 2025. Now its success can be pinned to a few factors – it’s technically brilliant, with clever and artful framing that makes you feel as if you’re in an actual production of Hamlet. But beyond the technicals, the film also grapples with deeper themes of mental health, the isolating effects of the lockdowns endured in the UK, and the couples’ personal experiences with it. “A lot of people have said to us that they didn’t expect it to be so emotional, as it made them think about male mental health,” says Grylls. “Many watch it because they don’t know what it is, and I think they are really curious. If they haven’t played the game before, I hope they see games differently and the communities within them. And if they have a preconception about Shakespear, I hope they feel differently.”
“We wanted to try and say that video games are incredible, and GTA in particular is very satirical and sophisticated,” she continues. “The way the light is designed, all the landscapes and extra elements… it’s not just about speeding cars. There are so many layers to the game. We wanted to challenge people’s preconceptions and say that these are both kinds of equally valid cultural artifacts.”
Head over to our sister magazine Anima here to read the full Q&A with Grylls and Crane.
Grand Theft Hamlet is out now in UK & Irish cinemas, released by Tull Stories, then streaming globally on MUBI in early 2025.
