How three out-of-work friends spent COVID staging a tragedy inside a comedy in GTA Online — and made a doc about it

The documentary Grand Theft Hamlet, directed by Sam Crane and Pinny Grylls, tells the incredible true story of how a group of actors banded together to perform Hamlet in the world of Grand Theft Auto Online.

The film captures two players staging the classic within an online video game, raising fascinating questions about community and connection.

Video games have never been more prevalent or elaborate, but the industry that creates them is currently facing unprecedented headwinds amid spiraling costs, intense competition, and a stagnating player-base.

Faced with COVID lockdown, two out-of-work actors reach for Shakespeare in an experimental documentary that creates art on the mean streets of GTA's Los Santos.

There are, at a minimum, and I checked, 18 bazillion adaptations of William Shakespeare's "Hamlet." It's one of the most beloved and scrutinized texts in the whole of the English language. More actors than anyone can count -- strike that,