Is it possible to stage a Shakespeare play inside the game Grand Theft Auto? This is a question few would ask but when the UK entered its third lockdown with nothing but time, WiFi connection and games consoles on their hands, out-of-work actors Sam Crane and Mark Oosterveen decided to do the impossible.
Since the pandemic, there have been many attempts to dramatise the lockdown experience, for better (Host, Help) and for worse (Staged). Regardless of their critical success, it can be agreed that the pandemic period is not visually inspiring. By using the game as its backdrop, Grand Theft Hamlet avoids the dull corporate aesthetics of Zoom that have become synonymous with a time in our lives that most of us are in no rush to reminisce on. Grand Theft Auto, which offers players an arsenal of weaponry, is infamous for its seemingly infinite violent possibilities – which makes it incredibly difficult to get through Shakespearean verse without getting shot down from halfway across this virtual world. Alongside slapstick elements of extreme violence committed against avatars, who are often just trying to make it through the scene, co-writers and directors Pinny Grylls and Sam Crane examine the beauty of the gaming world.
