Review: Fat Ham at Studio Theatre
Since it’s a well-known fact that Shakespeare adapted the plots of existing plays for his own masterworks, no shade should be cast on Fat Ham’s playwright James Ijames for lifting the plot and major characters from Hamlet. What he builds on this scaffolding is all his own, totally enjoyable, and even a little profound.
I hope it won’t be giving away too much to report that at the end of Fat Ham, the stage is not littered with bodies. Although this particular line is not among the occasional quotations from the original, the ending brought it to mind: “Those that are married already – all but one – shall live. The rest shall keep as they are.” And to emphasize the alternative to bloody slaughter, where some productions have a danse macabre (which I witnessed a few years ago at London’s Globe), the play ends with a joyous, life-affirming celebration.
There’s Hamlet (Juicy, played by Marquis D. Gibson), all in black and suitably depressed; a manic Horatio (Tio, Thomas Walker Booker); a bullying Ghost (Pap), doubled by Greg Alvarez Reid as Rev (Claudius); and Gertrude (Tedra, Tanesha Gary). Rounding out the cast: a gender-reversed Polonius (Rabby, Kelli Blackwell); her daughter, Ophelia (Opal, Gaelyn D. Smith), and son, Laertes (Larry, Matthew Elijah Webb).
So much for the cast and situation: the occasion is a backyard barbeque to celebrate the wedding of Tedra and Rev after the death of her first husband, Pap, in prison. And yes, Pap and Rev were brothers, and yes, it is revealed that Rev had Pap killed. A scene that echoes the one when Hamlet confronts Gertrude in her bedroom reveals all the false confidence and angst of an aging beauty grasping at security. We are privy to several soliloquies revealing Juicy’s thoughts throughout the play. The Ghost appears with effects that left me wishing that there was a special award for costume lighting (and the lighting throughout the play is to be marveled at).
Opal, whose antagonist is the dress her mother made her wear, is not nearly so fragile as her namesake; indeed, she’s sulky about being under the thumb of domineering Rabby. Those combat boots she’s wearing, though, hint at a strength of character waiting to reveal itself. Unfortunately, she’s mostly used as a sounding board for Juicy. Her fate is unexplored.
A thread of cooking and eating runs through Fat Ham. Pap had owned a barbeque restaurant, and a smoker has pride of place on the porch. One clever bit of dialog recalls the original play: as Rev brags about his touch with grilled meat, he declares, “It’s in the rub.” “Ay,” replies Juicy, “there’s the rub!” During times of strong emotion throughout the play, the way of showing love is often, “Let me fix you a plate.”
Tio scores some weed. As he and Juicy sit together, Tio prattles forth a high soliloquy of his own, centering sweets as metaphor – culminating in a “gingerbread man blow job.” There’s an image for the ages!
And then Rev chokes to death. A highly appropriate end to a villain – and the beginning of the liberation of Tedra, Juicy, and especially Larry, who is now free to break out from his repressed persona into a joyous being, represented by another fabulous costume, to end the play.
Fat Ham is playing at Studio Theatre through December 23, 2023.
