James Ijames' Fat Ham at PlayMakers Rep Gives Shakespeare's Hamlet a New and Colorful Twist
This article was published by Triangle Review on 8 February 2024.
Thirty years ago, when I was a graduate student at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, I regularly bought season tickets to PlayMakers Repertory Company, the professional-theater-in-residence at UNC. Every season featured a traditional Shakespeare production, which -- truth be told -- could get a little old. Well, things have changed. PlayMakers has featured a Shakespearean production this season, but one with a whole new and colorful twist.
Fat Ham, playing now through Feb. 18th in the Paul Green Theatre, is the most recent play by James Ijames' (pronounced "times" without the "t") that is based on Shakespeare's Hamlet. But rather than focusing on an outdated Danish royal family, Fat Ham centers on a contemporary Black family at a cookout in none other than North Carolina.
Though the play follows the Shakespearean plot of Hamlet, and there are ample allusions to Shakespeare's original masterpiece, the characters and language in Fat Ham are modern and easy to understand and identify with. Think of it as Shakespeare meets Spike Lee, but with a comedic twist that leaves you feeling good after what most certainly should be a tragedy.
Heinley Gaspard, a PlayMakers Rep member in the third year of UNC's Professional Actor Training Program, is endearingly "soft" (as the other characters say) in his portrayal of Juicy, the non-aggressive son of Pap, who has recently been stabbed to death in prison.
Samuel Ray Gates plays Pap as well as Pap's Brother, the "Reverend" (Rev), who married Juicy's mother (Rasool Jahan) immediately before the play begins. Both Pap and Rev are played convincingly and comically by Samuel Ray Gates, a PlayMakers company member in his fifth season (and who, incidentally, was absolutely mesmerizing in his role as August Wilson in PlayMakers' 2022 production of How I Learned What I Learned).
Mengwe Wapimewah is decisive as Opal, the play's replacement of Hamlet's Ophelia, who -- rather than being the protagonist's love interest -- is a lesbian who has not yet revealed to the world that she "likes girls." And Kathryn Hunter-Williams is often hilarious in her portrayal of Rabby, the chest-beating Christian mother of Opal and her brother Larry (Jamar Jones), a decorated Marine who is privately LGBTQ.
But the highlights of the play are the performances of Rasool Jahan, who plays Juicy's sexy fun-loving mother Tedra, and Nate John Mark, who plays Juicy's porn-star-wannabe, pot-smoking cousin Tio. Jahan's dialogue hits home every time she opens her mouth. And, by the end of the play, just looking at Nate John Mark (Tio) will make you laugh.
Despite the imminent death of Juicy's uncle, the play ends on a happy note.
Scenic designer Jan Chambers provides the audience with an overview of the family's backyard, which is decorated for Tedra and Rev's after-wedding party. Just beyond the back porch is a life-sized pig smoking on a real black cylindrical grill, alongside which is a table with barbecue picnic fixin's.
In the middle of the stage is the picnic table around which most of the action occurs, and beyond that is a small courtyard with benches and a plot of flowering plants. All of this is set against the background of a 3-D house, through the sliding back doors of which the furniture and decorated walls of a living room and hallway can be seen. The whole stage looks like the set of a Hollywood movie.
Not only is Fat Ham an introduction to Shakespeare's timeless masterpieces. The play won James Ijames the 2022 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, which alone renders it worth your viewing -- if only to see what all the fuss is about.
It is noteworthy that the play contains adult language that incorporates cursing, sex, and drugs, so you should only bring your teenage kids if you have initiated them into R-rated movies. If this is the case, I'm sure you all will get just as much of a kick out of Fat Ham as my 13-year-old son and I did.
