When live performance shut down during the COVID-19 pandemic, actors Sam Crane and Mark Oosterveen weren’t sure when—or if—they’d ever be onstage again. So, they turned to an unexpected venue: Grand Theft Auto Online, a sprawling, open-world video game best known for fast cars, chaotic and often criminal missions, and player-driven mayhem. Amid the game’s unpredictable violence, they decided to stage Hamlet—it would be the first ever complete performance of a Shakespeare play within a video game.

Filmmaker Pinny Grylls joined them and turned the experiment into a documentary: Grand Theft Hamlet. Shot entirely within the game, the film won the Grand Jury Award for Best Documentary Feature at the 2024 SXSW Film Festival. “A startling example of using any tools at your disposal to make memorable art,” said the Rotten Tomatoes website. “Grand Theft Hamlet’s experimental approach does justice by the Bard.”

In this episode, Crane and Grylls talk about performance,  friendship, and grief during lockdown, as well as how one of Shakespeare’s most famous plays unexpectedly resonated with a virtual cast of strangers and a world in isolation. The result is both funny and poignant, and as surprising as live theater itself.

From the Shakespeare Unlimited podcast. Published July 1, 2025. © Folger Shakespeare Library. All rights reserved. This episode was produced by Matt Frassica. Garland Scott is the executive producer. It was edited by Gail Kern Paster. We had help with web production from Paola García Acuña. Leonor Fernandez edits our transcripts. Final mixing services are provided by Clean Cuts at Three Seas, Inc.

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