You’ve probably seen some weird stuff in Los Santos. We all have. Usually, it involves a flying motorcycle or a tank rampaging through Del Perro Pier. But Grand Theft Auto Hamlet isn't your typical grief-fest. It’s a documentary—and a film—about two out-of-work actors who decided to stage William Shakespeare’s most famous tragedy inside the chaos of Grand Theft Auto Online. It sounds like a joke. Honestly, when I first heard about it, I thought it was just another YouTube stunt. It isn't.
The project, directed by Pinny Grylls and Sam Crane, captures a very specific moment in time. We’re talking about the 2021 lockdowns. People were bored, lonely, and looking for a stage. For Crane and his friend Mark Oosterveen, the stage just happened to have 30-player lobbies and constant sniper fire.
What is Grand Theft Auto Hamlet exactly?
It started as a simple "what if." What if you took the most prestigious text in the English language and dropped it into a digital world built for mindless violence? The film follows Sam and Mark as they wander through the game, trying to find a spot that looks like Elsinore. They find a theater in the game—the Vinewood Bowl—and decide to try and put on a full production.
It's a machinima, but it's also a deeply personal documentary. You see their avatars—looking like typical GTA thugs or weirdos—reciting "To be, or not to be" while random players zoom past on screeching tires. There’s something bizarrely moving about seeing a digital character in a tracksuit contemplating suicide while a jet fighter streaks across the sky in the background. It highlights the weird juxtaposition of high art and low-brow digital mayhem.
The documentary ended up winning the Jury Award at SXSW 2024. That’s huge. It’s not just "gaming news"; it’s actual film industry recognition. It proves that the "Grand Theft Auto Hamlet" experiment tapped into something universal about the need to create, even when the world—or the game engine—is actively trying to stop you.
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The Struggle of Staging Shakespeare in Los Santos
You can't just "act" in GTA. The controls aren't built for nuance. If you want to look pensive, you might accidentally pull out a submachine gun. The filmmakers had to work within these rigid, violent constraints.
- The Griefers: This was the biggest hurdle. Imagine trying to deliver a soliloquy while a kid from halfway across the world tries to blow you up with an orbital cannon.
- The Mechanics: Characters in GTA don't have "theatrical" animations. They have "walking," "shooting," and "flipping people off."
- The Cast: They actually had to hold auditions inside the game. They found other players who were willing to take it seriously, which is a miracle in itself given the reputation of the GTA community.
One of the most striking things about Grand Theft Auto Hamlet is how it handles the "ghost" of Hamlet’s father. In the play, it’s a terrifying apparition. In the game, they used the creative tools available to make it feel eerie within the engine's logic. It makes you realize that the limitations of a game can actually force more creativity than a $200 million Hollywood budget.
Why this isn't just a gimmick
Some critics might dismiss this as a "metaverse" fad. They’d be wrong. It’s actually part of a long tradition of machinima—using game engines to tell stories—that dates back to Red vs. Blue or The French Democracy. But those were usually scripted and controlled.
What makes the Grand Theft Auto Hamlet project different is the live, unpredictable element. It’s "Found Footage" meets "The Globe Theatre." It captures the frustration of the pandemic era perfectly. We were all trapped in boxes, trying to communicate through screens. Sam and Mark just chose a box where people also happen to steal cars.
There’s a scene where they’re talking to a random player who stumbled upon their rehearsal. This player doesn't kill them. They just listen. For a second, the game stops being a murder simulator and becomes a shared human space. That’s the "why" behind the whole thing. It strips away the graphics and the guns to show that people still want to connect over stories, no matter how loud the background noise is.
How to watch it and what to look for
The film has been making the rounds at festivals and has picked up distribution deals (notably with MUBI in certain territories). If you're going to watch it, don't go in expecting a "clean" version of Hamlet. That's not the point.
Look for the moments where the game "breaks" the performance. Watch the weather cycles. GTA has a dynamic weather system, and sometimes a rainstorm hits just as things get dramatic. It wasn't planned. It was "given" by the engine. These happy accidents are what make the film feel alive.
Technical details of the production
- Platform: PlayStation and PC versions were used for different stages of scouting and filming.
- Sound: They had to record high-quality audio separately because the in-game chat is, frankly, garbage quality for a feature film.
- Directing: Pinny Grylls acted as a traditional documentary director, filming the players behind the screens as much as the avatars on the screen.
The Legacy of the Los Santos Hamlet
Will we see more of this? Probably. As game engines like Unreal Engine 5 and the tools within Grand Theft Auto VI (whenever that finally drops) get more sophisticated, the line between "playing a game" and "performing a play" is going to blur even more.
Grand Theft Auto Hamlet serves as a blueprint. It shows that you don't need a permit or a physical stage to create something that resonates with people. You just need a lobby, a headset, and a really thick skin for when the rockets start flying. It’s a testament to the fact that Shakespeare’s themes—betrayal, grief, indecision—are just as relevant in a digital wasteland as they were in 1601.
Honestly, the world of Los Santos is actually a pretty good stand-in for Denmark. It's corrupt. It's violent. It's full of people who are "but mad north-north-west." Maybe Hamlet was always meant to be played by a guy in a "Love Fist" t-shirt.
Actionable Insights for Digital Creators
If you're inspired by the success of this project, here's how to look at your own digital hobbies differently:
- Audit your "Digital Stages": Look at games like Roblox, Fortnite, or GTA not as toys, but as sets. The lighting, physics, and "actors" (players) are already there.
- Embrace Constraints: The best parts of the Hamlet film come from the game not cooperating. Don't fight the limitations of your medium; use them as a narrative device.
- Document the Process: The "making of" is often as interesting as the final product. If you're doing something weird in a digital space, record the behind-the-scenes conversations. That's where the real human story lives.
- Search for Community: You'd be surprised how many people are tired of the "main loop" of a game and are looking for something weird or creative to participate in.
Check out the official trailers and festival listings for the documentary to see the specific techniques Grylls and Crane used to turn a chaotic sandbox into a cinematic experience.