By BOB HOOVER
“They staged a play, and a party broke out,” said a patron at City Theatre on March 8 at the Pittsburgh premiere of Fat Ham, the boisterous, in-your-face version of Hamlet – without the handwringing.
In front of a packed house, including Allegheny County Executive Sara Innamorato, Fat Ham lifted the audience out of its seats to dance and clap at the uplifting conclusion where there was only one body, unlike Shakespeare’s many.
Monteze Freeland, City’s co-artistic director, gives his cast a wide range to work with. The result is fun with serious themes emerging. Written by James Ijames, the play won the Pulitzer Prize in 2022.
This setting isn’t a gloomy castle in Denmark, but a gaily decorated backyard in North Carolina where a Black family is celebrating the marriage of widow Tetra to her late husband’s brother, Rev, not long after hubby No. 1, Pap, caught a shiv in the chest. Sound familiar?
Juicy, Tetra’s “thick” teenage son, is mourning his father, hating his uncle, and finding out his mother used his tuition money for his online studies in “human relations” to remodel her bathroom.
Brandon Foxworth, in his City Theatre debut, fills his role as an outsider who quotes Hamlet, wants out of this scene, but still is attached to his mother. “Why you readin’ that old white man?” Tetra asks him.
Juicy’s gay, “soft,” and a pansy in Rev’s eye, who punches him hard in the stomach to prove he’s a tough straight guy. Tetra, a sexy Maria Becoates-Bey, doesn’t object.
Friend Tito, who’s most definitely straight, fills the Horatio role. Another newcomer, the glib comedian Jordan Williams is the play’s philosopher when he’s not watching porn on his phone. His dream of a computer game fighting gingerbread men becomes more fun than he imagined, even though he prefers gingerbread ladies.
Leaving Juicy alone in the backyard as pork sizzles on the barbecue grill, the set darkens to reveal the ghost of Pap in a blood-soaked apron, who names his brother his murderer and, of course, tells his son to take him out. Khalil Kain plays him and the Rev as a nasty lecher largely interested in Tetra’s restaurant.
Enter more Hamlet knockoffs – church lady Rabby (Linda Haston) as a female Polonius, her children Larry (Laertes) and Opal (Ophelia). Larry, a stiff-necked Latrea Rembert, is a Marine who speaks in monosyllables. Opal arrives bouncing a basketball with a flouncy dress pulled over her shorts. “I like girls,” she sniggers, blaming her mother for the dress.
As Larry, Rembert is not what he seems in his uniform. Elexa Lindsay Hanner‘s Opal reacts with wide-eyed expressions and limber dance moves to the bizarre scene.
For nearly two hours without intermission, Fat Ham turns Hamlet on its head and asks us to reconsider gender roles in our world. Juicy learns it’s OK to be “soft,” Tito opts for pleasure anywhere he can find it, and Tetra realizes she doesn’t need a man to be successful.
And Larry?
“What a piece of work is man.”
TICKETS AND DETAILS
Fat Ham by James Ijames at Pittsburgh City Theatre through March 24, 2024. Tickets: 412-431-2489 or https://citytheatrecompany.org/play/fat-ham/
Rread Sharon Eberson’s feature on Brandon Foxworth here.
Categories: Arts and Ideas, Reviews
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