Congratulations to Hertford alumna Pinny Grylls and fellow Oxford alumnus Sam Crane on their remarkable success at this year’s British Independent Film Awards. Their bold and innovative documentary, Grand Theft Hamlet, won both Best Debut Director (Feature Documentary) and the prestigious Radiance Maverick Award. It was while performing a production of Hamlet at Oxford, that the pair fittingly met!

Grand Theft Hamlet follows actors Sam Crane and Mark Oosterveen as they embark on an audacious lockdown experiment—staging a production of Hamlet inside the virtual world of Grand Theft Auto, a game more commonly associated with high-speed chases and chaos than Shakespearean drama.

The idea was born when their in-game avatars stumbled upon an abandoned amphitheater, the Vinewood Bowl, nestled within the digital city of Los Santos. Seeing the potential for an unconventional stage, they decided to bring live theatre into this unpredictable online world.

As Crane’s character addressed an audience of virtual bystanders, he introduced the play with an earnest request:

“This is William Shakespeare’s Hamlet. I believe it’s the first time it’s ever been performed at the Vinewood Bowl.
If I could just request that you refrain from killing each other… and please, don’t kill the actors either.”

But, true to the nature of Grand Theft Auto, chaos was inevitable.

The documentary has received glowing praise from critics. Empire hails it as “easily the funniest piece of art to emerge from lockdown… and, unexpectedly, one of the most cathartic, too.” Meanwhile, the BBC calls it “a spectacular metaphor of ambition.”

A huge congratulations to Pinny on this extraordinary achievement—we can’t wait to see what comes next!