When it comes to adapting Hamlet, there have been many retellings and iterations. While it certainly doesn’t surpass Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol as the most adapted work, there have been no shortage of attempts. It’s so often alluded to, your unfamiliarity with the original text could cause you to miss a joke on The Simpsons or Friends (for all the Gen Xers out there). From Lion King to The Northman, and Strange Brew to Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, each has its own spin, but none are quite as bold or audacious as James Ijames’ Pulitzer Prize-winning Fat Ham now at Stage West Theatre.
Directed by Vickie Washington and starring Tyler Ray Lewis (Juicy), Calvin Gabriel (Rev/Pap), Jori Jackson (Opal), Cherish Love (Rabby), Nikka Morton (Tedra), Caleb Mosley (Larry), and Zachary J. Willis (Tio), the show runs two hours with a single intermission. At the center of Fat Ham, we find Juicy (the Hamlet character of this adaption), a queer Black man in a traditionally Southern family. True to its source material, Juicy’s uncle has murdered Juicy’s father and married Juicy’s mother, and the father’s butcher knife-wielding ghost wants revenge with Juicy’s help. Though Fat Ham may be framed as a routine adaption, it’s more of a deconstructed Hamlet, one that has been reassembled as a comedy instead of a tragedy, and it’s this twist that makes it unique.
The action is set against the backdrop of a backyard barbecue on the day of Tedra and Rev’s wedding. Lewis’ brooding is less fueled by anger and more exacerbated by the solitary feelings they carry from not belonging in this still overtly masculine household. Lewis shines in this role, both expressive and brave when the script demands it, but also able to teeter on the verge of collapsing in on themselves when the brunt force of Gabriel’s Rev touts his brand of masculinity.
Gabriel, pulling double duty as the slain father and the uncle, deftly carries the force of the generational trauma that Juicy and the other characters are dealing with throughout the play. The moment he enters the stage, he is a commanding presence. Morton’s Gertrude-esque Tedra offers humor but also serves as an effective buffer between Lewis’ softer side and the toxic dynamic that Gabriel enforces as the new head of the household.
Without spoiling some of the surprising beats, it’s worth mentioning that this show is well cast all around. Jackson and Mosley, as the Ophelia and Laertes figures, bring in a needed second-half complexity that helps to pull Lewis’ Juicy out into the open to bare his soul as the temperature rises at this backyard party. Likewise, Willis’ Tio does some philosophical heavy lifting to layer in some of the more existential themes found in the original Hamlet while bringing in some much-needed levity.
Donna Marquet’s excellent set design utilizes this space well to allow the various threads of the narrative to coexist while not running on top of one another. Though this cast is rather small, they often break into smaller groups as both generational divides, and gender divides, require the spacious blocking of this well-designed set. washington’s ambitious directing also provides for some surprising emotional moments as the events unfold and every character goes through a redemptive transformation.
Fans of the bard’s original work may struggle a bit with the modernization of this play and the playful nature of the bending of its themes. It does not play straight ahead. As with the work itself, getting immersed into the story takes some imagination. But when you witness Juicy’s fresh new take on “What a piece of work is a man” and Radiohead’s “Creep,” it’s impossible not to enjoy yourself in James Ijames’ deconstructed and reconstructed world of Hamlet.
Fat Ham
Thru Sun at Stage West Theatre, 821 W Vickery Blvd, Fort Worth. $48.50-52.50. 817-784-9378.
