“Fat Ham” Turns “Hamlet” Inside Out To Reexamine Its Heart

Darrington Clark in Fat Ham (Don Ipock)

Adaptations and reimagings of Hamlet have never been in short supply. James Ijames’s Fat Ham makes its mark in that crowded field by having no reservations about turning Shakespeare’s classic entirely on its head. And the play certainly is having an impact. Following its 2021 Philadelphia premiere, the show ran off-Broadway, hit Broadway, won a Pulitzer, and is soon heading to the UK for a run at the Royal Shakespeare Company. Kansas City theatregoers can currently find the unique spin on the tragedy onstage at the Unicorn Theatre.

Ijames’s script, directed here by Tosin Morohunfola, runs largely parallel to Shakespeare’s original, hitting its own spin on the major plot points and delivering a few hilariously tongue-in-cheek direct one-to-one references. (Our protagonist’s plan to “catch the conscience of the king” via a game of charades is a particularly fantastic choice.) 

In Fat Ham, the Hamlet character is Juicy (Darrington Clark), a young, gay Black man living with his mother, Tedra (Teonna Wesley). Tedra is hosting a barbecue to celebrate her wedding to Rev (L. Roi Hawkins), right on the heels of the death of her husband, Juicy’s father and also Rev’s twin brother, Pap (also played by Hawkins). Tedra, as she herself is quick to admit, is not equipped to being alone. So as one embodiment of toxic masculinity leaves her life, she immediately slots in another, continuing the cycle of abuse and oppressive scrutiny looming over Juicy.

The crushing grip Pap had on Juicy didn’t end with his death. Appearing as a ghost, he informs Juicy it was his uncle/new stepfather who ordered the prison hit that took his life, and demands that his son avenge his death by killing Rev.

Ijames is playful with his changes to Shakespeare’s work, keeping the original scaffolding but altering it to fit the world of this Black, queer man struggling to understand himself and his place in the world. Instead of being caught in a complicated romance with Ophelia (who here is Opal, a strong-willed lesbian with deep loyalty to her family, played by Amari Lewis), he pines for her brother Larry (Rashaad Hall), a Marine who seems to reciprocate Juicy’s feelings, buried deep beneath his stony exterior.

Fans of Shakespeare’s work will have a fun time noting Ijames’ alterations, but Fat Ham doesn’t require any prior familiarity to appreciate it. Juicy is a Hamlet all his own. (Although I can’t think of anything that captures Hamlet’s perpetually melancholy essence more perfectly than a young man whose go-to karaoke song is Radiohead’s “Creep.”) Perhaps the biggest change to the original is that we never get the feeling Juicy is seriously considering murdering his uncle. Instead, his father’s edict sparks a conflicted bout of self-exploration and a drive to assert himself in the face of soul-killing degradation.

That change is a meaningful one. Where Hamlet wavers about continuing the cycle of violence set by the men before him, Juicy is fully turned off from that possibility from the start. Juicy is a different type of man than his father and his uncle, and his biggest challenge is learning how to make the thing that sets him apart—his gentleness—work for him rather than hold him back.

Fat Ham’s similarities to Hamlet are fun, but it’s the differences that make this show special. In both plays, characters are constantly trying to balance their own desires and their sense of self with others’ expectations of them. How and why those scales tip for the characters in Hamlet differ wildly from their Fat Ham counterparts. The result is a surprising sense of hope that even the most established characters have the capacity for growth and self-preservation.

“Fat Ham” runs through June 8 at the Unicorn Theatre, 3828 Main St. For more information, visit unicorntheatre.org.