Film productions often struggle with changing weather, the threat of the crew going into overtime, or a blackout for a day. Less common are concerns about the cast slipping off a dirigible.

But that was one of the weird things to do Grand Theft Hamleta documentary about a pair of British actors, Sam Crane and Mark Oosterveen, who, while inactive during the coronavirus pandemic, decided to stage Hamlet in the violent virtual world of the video game grand theft auto.

Shakespeare wrote of “the slings and arrows of scandalous fortune” without thinking of a python on the loose in a bar or Hamlet struggling with “being” on a helipad. Still grand theft auto it might be an oddly fitting place for a play where almost everyone dies.

“The first time Sam did a bit of Shakespeare in that space, he said, ‘I imagine that’s what it was like in Shakespeare’s time at the Globe, when people would throw apples at you if you were rubbish,'” says Pinny Grylls. who co-wrote and directed the film with Crane, her husband. “No one really follows you, but every now and then they look around and listen to the poetry.”

Grand Theft Hamletwhich Mubi will release in theaters in January, opens with Crane and Oosterveen’s avatars running from the police and careering in an outdoor amphitheater. One says: “I wonder if you could stage something here?”