"Fat Ham" at Roundabout

Roundabout production photo by Joan Marcus

I've been looking forward to this one. I've been interested in James Ijames's work since seeing Kill Move Paradise several years ago, and since Fat Ham is meant to be a riff on Hamlet, I thought it ought to be a good time.

The Play

This is, in many ways, Hamlet, but set in the American South sometime in the last half century or so. The central character, Juicy, is working with his friend Tio set up the back yard for a wedding reception. Juicy's father, Pap, died in prison only a few days ago, but his mother, Tedra, has suddenly married Pap's brother, Rev. Rev has also taken over the family BBQ business. The other guest for the wedding reception are the loquatious Rabby and her grown children, Opal and Larry.

Of course, Pap's ghost appears (first to Tio, then to Juicy), revealing that his murder was set up by Rev, and that Juicy must avenge him by killing Rev, smoking the body and eating the meat. Needless to say, Juicy has reservations about all that. Next we learn that Tedra and Rev have siphoned off the money that Juicy was using to pay for his online college studies in Human Resources to pay for the wedding and some renovations on their house.

So Juicy has plenty of motivation to get rid of Rev, but he's still not terribly inclined to do so. We learn a fair amount about his long-time friendships with Tio and Opal and Larry while Tedra and Rev show off their home improvements and such. There are nods to Hamlet throughout, which is fun, and also provides some guideposts to where Ijames is both following and varying the plot of Shakespeare's play.

Overall I found it very cleverly written.

The Production

The whole play is set in the back yard of Tedra's house, with a good-sized porch dominated by a big BBQ smoker. The lawn around it has various accoutrements for a party, and big sliding doors lead into the house. It's pretty simple, but evocative. Marcel Spears is really good as Juicy, bright but brooding, and definitely in control of his faculties. Nikki Crawford (Tedra) and Billy Eugene Jones (Pap/Rev) play way over the top, in ways that manage to be both goofy and menacing at the same time. Add in the incessant babbling of Rabby (a wonderful Benja Kay Thomas), and the older generation is clearly the source of everyone's issues. Meanwhile, the taciturn Marine Larry (Calvin Leon Smith), the sullen teen Opal (Adrianna Mitchell), and the loose, stoned, inappropriate Tio (Chris Herbie Holland) provide the grounding that Juicy really needs.

The whole production under the direction of Saheem Ali (who directed Goddess at Berkeley Rep last year) does a great job of balancing the familiar threads of Hamlet with enough surprises and twists to keep us on our toes and make sure we understand where Ijames is taking us with his retelling. By making the ghost scenes comical and putting more emphasis on Juicy's relationships with his younger peers (especially Larry), /Fat Ham/ explores story lines that many recognize in Shakespeare's play, but without needing to inject too much extraneous material. It's really quite a remarkable job of writing and producing.

The Bottom Line

I really liked this show. Nearly all the actors are making their Broadway debuts in this production, but all are worthy of being there. The blending of the familiar aspects of the classic Shakespeare play with a very specific family story in a particular time and place brings out both the universality of Shakespeare's story elements and adds extra power to Ijames's riff. The audience was delighted, and deservedly so.

All told, I thought this was great, and look forward to seeing this play again sometime. I expect it will make it to the Bay Area before too long. Check it out!