There are at least some, and I checked, 18 billion adaptations of “Hamlet” by William Shakespeare. It is one of the most beloved and scrutinized texts in the entire English language.
More actors than anyone can count – except I guess there were 18 billion – have put their stamp on this 425-year-old play about a prince and his revenge against his conspiratorial, murderous uncle. The words “to be or not to be” appear in the global lexicon, forever preserving Shakespeare’s complex thoughts about the end of his own life, as generation after generation of performers and directors put their own stamp on it. which is perhaps humanity’s most worn-out dramatic material. has.
But I’ve never seen a “to be or not to be” speech like the one in “Grand Theft Hamlet.” It is now a speech about life addressed to lifeless automatons, frequently interrupted by real imbeciles who assassinate the actor in the middle of the speech. Half absurd, half profound. That’s what you get for staging a Shakespearean play within the confines of “Grand Theft Auto Online,” a multiplayer game in which players undertake thrilling crime missions or, just as often, go on a rampage and shoot themselves in the face with rockets and attack aircraft. .
It was 2021 and, like many, actors Sam Crane and Mark Oosterveen were unemployed, cooped up at home and going a little north-northwest crazy. While living vicariously through their online avatars, they stumbled upon an area of San Andreas – the game’s cheeky stand-in for Southern California – that they had never seen before. A giant amphitheater, exactly the kind of place an actor dreams of. And they are, coincidentally, considering the possibility of organizing a production within the game, since live performances were no longer possible due to the lockdown and COVID precautions.
“Grand Theft Hamlet” is a plucky underdog story — a modern, violent take on a Mickey Rooney cartoon declaring, “Hey kids, let’s put on a show!” They’re not trying to save orphans from a workhouse or protect their beloved community center from gentrification by the evil Mr. Douglas; they are merely filling a void in their lives, simultaneously accepting and rejecting the options presented to them by escapist entertainment. Instead of following Rockstar Games’ expectations and unleashing their darkest identities on a seedy underworld, they’re using “GTA Online” as a canvas to create something powerful and beautiful. The only difference is that it’s attack planes and a badass airship scene, because they might as well work with what they’ve got.
Directed by Sam Crane and documentary filmmaker Pinny Grylls, “Grand Theft Hamlet” can’t help but captivate us. The film exists in an impersonal world that becomes increasingly and awkwardly personal, as the film never leaves the digital environment. Crane and Grylls, who are married, have long arguments over the amount of time he spends on this online production of “Hamlet”, sometimes addressed by annoying NPCs. At one point, Crane, extremely lonely, says he wishes he could hug his wife. That’s when she reminds him that he can. After all, they live in the same house.
When you put on a show, that show becomes your whole life. Especially when you didn’t have a life to begin with. There are inevitable moments when unrealistic aspects overwhelm these actors and they wonder whether to shelve the entire project, but these decisions carry great weight because your actors, at least some of them, literally have nothing else in their lives right now. They have no other friends or family members to interact with. Their only outlet is gaming and, from now on, artistic creation.
Crane and Oosterveen are not alone. They hold auditions in San Andreas for their production, which leads to frequent accidental murders and police interventions. They recruit beginning actors – and at least one other professional, Jen Cohn, the voice of Pharah in “Overwatch” – and gradually attract other hikers who join the team unofficially, either by showing up discreetly wherever they are looking for locations . or working as unofficial security, assassinating other nearby players before anyone can interrupt rehearsals by assassinating, again. They are the rowdiest possible equivalent of the rabble of the old Globe Theater, throwing rotten vegetables at players they don’t like and rushing across the stage to join the sword fights.
Life, theater and video games are what we make of them. The absurd depth of “Grand Theft Hamlet” is a testament to our marvelous human capacity to express ourselves. We make something out of nothing. We find meaning in what seems meaningless. If there’s one disappointing element to this moving, funny, sad and memorable film, it’s that it’s not five hours long. Because we don’t see their final production of “Hamlet” in its entirety, just a broad overview of its highlights and hilarious accidental tragedies.
One suspects that the play could have been a film in itself. After all, the room is the thing.
