SEPTEMBER 19, 2025, Phoenix Art Museum

SPECIAL EVENT FEATURING SCREENING OF THE INNOVATIVE FILM, GRAND THEFT HAMLET

Southwest Shakespeare Company will hold a special event at Phoenix Art Museum on Friday, September 19, 2025, from 5pm to 8pm.  The feature of the evening is a screening of the extraordinary film Grand Theft Hamlet.  Winner of numerous awards, including the Grand Jury Award for a Documentary Feature at SXSW, Grand Theft Hamlet documents the hilarious journey of out-of-work British theatre artists during COVID who mount the Shakespeare classic entirely in-game within Grand Theft Auto Online.

​

The festive evening event will begin with appetizers, cash bar and a costume contest with prizes and cash valued at more than $2,000. Following the film screening there will be a special recorded interview with the filmmakers to give additional context to the experience.  Tickets are $45 and include not only the screening and light appetizers, but a voucher good for one ticket to any play in Southwest Shakespeare’s 2025-26 season.

SYNOPSIS:

It’s January 2021, the UK has entered its third COVID lockdown, and theatres remain shuttered. Isolated and uncertain about their futures, actors Sam and Mark find solace in the digital escape of Grand Theft Auto Online, where they revel in chaotic car chases and explosive battles.  But in the midst of this violence, they find an unexpected idea: why not bring one of the greatest plays ever written into this virtual landscape?  They set out to stage Shakespeare’s Hamlet within the violent, unpredictable world of Grand Theft Auto Online.

​

The film is shot entirely inside Grand Theft Auto, using the game’s cinematic capabilities to blend theatre with interactive storytelling.  With Los Santos’ vivid, hyper-detailed cityscapes as the backdrop, Sam and Mark’s avatars rehearse Hamlet—a play about revenge and madness—in a world where death and destruction are the norm.  But just as theatre was unruly in Shakespeare’s day, the actors must face both the challenges of staging a serious production in a chaotic game and the larger question: can ancient stories find meaning in today’s digital age?

Directors Pinny Grylls and Sam Crane capture moments of profound pathos, humor, and reflection as they explore what’s possible when cultural history meets virtual reality.  This groundbreaking documentary questions the boundaries between old and new, virtual and real, art and escapism.

​

Grand Theft Hamlet premiered at SXSW 2024, where it won the Documentary Feature Jury Award, and has since been featured at prestigious festivals including CPH: DOX, Hot Docs, Visions du Reel, and the London Film Festival, among many others.

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

“The year’s funniest documentary”  - Time Out

​

“A brilliant idea, brilliantly executed...Genuinely exciting”  - The Guardian

​

“Ingenious” - The Scotsman

​

“An innovative and uplifting film”  - Daily Telegraph

​

“[An] ingenious documentary...a strangely moving testament to the communal comforts of gaming and performance alike.”  - Observer

“An utterly hilarious and unexpectedly moving treat... Murderously funny... Laugh out-loud may be a cliche, but that’s what myself and most of the cinema audience were doing... Wickedly entertaining”  - The Standard