Serving Looks With A Side of Ham

James Ijames serves a sizzling feast of social commentary with a glaze of comedy, all wrapped in the stage play, Fat Ham. In Fat Ham, we follow a Hamlet-like character, Juicy, and his struggles with his newfound family dynamic; after his father, Pap, was killed in prison, his Uncle Rev, married his mom, Tedra. At the beginning of the play, while Juicy leaves his best friend/cousin Tio in the yard, Pap's ghost appears. With flickering porch lights and a red sky, Pap, draped in white sheets, shuffles through the yard in search of Juicy as thunder cracks off stage. The same scene is repeated when Juicy is now left alone, mirroring the same sequence in the original Hamlet, yet instead of Juicy bravely seeking after his father’s ghost, he cowers in fear, freaking out as the spirit surges towards him. Pap then urges Juicy to seek revenge once he calms down, encouraging him to gut his uncle like a pig in a display of toxic masculine ideals of violence. Throughout the play, Juicy struggles with the idea of killing Rev, not wanting to follow his fathers footsteps.

Juicy, (portrayed by Taj E.M. Burroughs), is an angsty, brooding, thoughtful character; much like his Shakespearean counterpart, Hamlet. His story similarly follows Hamlet's, with the exception of the family dynamics. Though Juicy struggles with his fathers, Pap’s, (played by Reginald André Jackson), death, it’s for different reasons. Juicy isn’t super comfortable with grieving his father, seeing as they didn’t have the best relationship; he recounts a time when Pap destroyed his favorite doll because he viewed it as unmanly. His mom, Tedra, (Jasmine Lomax), also recounts how Pap would hit her, “in the tit!”, as she said. Another difference between our modern Hamlet and the original is that he doesn’t actually want to kill his uncle Rev, (also played by Jackson), because his father wants him to. He doesn’t like him, that much is the same, but Juicy dislikes him because he pressures Juicy to be more manly, even encouraging him to fight and be angry, much like Pap. Plus the fact that Juicy recognizes how fast Rev married his mom, and how harmful Rev’s behavior can be to her. Tedra still sees this as an improvement from Pap, though, because even if Rev is mean and toxic, he’s a step up from Pap, and Tedra is scared of being alone, as she states when talking to Juicy about his problems with his uncle.

We also see the toxic masculinity and gender roles pop up in the side characters; Larry and Opal, (played by Aishe Keita and Semaj Miller), are siblings and parallel Laertes and Ophelia, their mom Rabby (Felicia V. Loud) portraying a version of Polonius.

Larry is a military man who Rev likes a lot, he sees him as a good example of a manly man in contrast to Juicy, but Larry’s conflicted. He expresses to Juicy his qualms with how people view him, how he has to be strong because it’s what is expected.

Larry’s sister Opal is much different. She’s confident and masculine; we see her in a floral dress that her mom made her wear, but she wears a hoodie over it to express her discomfort in the outfit her mom chose for her, as well as wearing basketball shorts under it in case she could take the dress off. Both Opal and Larry show how negatively the gender roles forced on them affect them.

One side character, Tio, (Chip Sherman), is one of the most emotionally stable characters. When Juicy displays his discomfort with the thought of killing his uncle, Tio expresses his opinion. Tio recounts something his therapist told him; cycles of violence are prevalent in male family members. Tio jumps through the loop, physically jumping while recounting the thought process. Juicy’s dad went to jail, his dad went to jail, as well as he dad, leading all the way back to slavery, another form of imprisonment and violent cycles. He comedically discourages Juicy from repeating the cycles, saying to not kill him.

During the play people laughed along with the characters, responded fervently to the call-and-response portions, and gasped in shock at the more dramatic parts of the play. The representation of queer characters battling gender conformity was immaculate, and the boundaries of assessing familial and generational trauma are pushed as all the characters express their struggles and differences.

It’s a good watch and a fun experience overall, and a thought provoking piece if you read past its face values. The expressive lighting at times isolates characters, casting darkness on all but one at a time, or changes the mood, brightening the backyard set with orange and yellow colors accompanied by festive music. The characters are deeply thought out, but not obviously. One monologue from Fat Ham comes to mind when considering how comprehensive the play is. Tio recounts an experience he had when high and playing VR, the monologue is long and twists and turns, and you kinda lose the point halfway through. It’s very funny at points, but at the end you forget how it started. When he summarizes his thoughts at the end, one could impress in their mind that Tio’s point was “focus on the good in life and be happy,” when it was much deeper, just confusingly formatted. Despite it’s great traits and scenes, you wouldn’t be able to figure out the plot well if you came in late.

I’d recommend this play to lovers of Shakespeare and people who will be able to appreciate the subtle references and the small details of the dialogue, set design, costumes, and character depictions. It grapples contemporary issues like toxic masculinity, queerness, and generational trauma, with lighter tones to highlight the mindset of “you have no obligation to others” when it comes to how you live your life. It’s a great modern twist on Shakespeare, which takes the phenomenal, universally relatable writing, and applying it to a more contemporary America.

Lead Photo Credit: Taj E.M. Burroughs in Fat Ham (2024) at Seattle Rep. Photo by Bronwen Houck.

The TeenTix Press Corps promotes critical thinking, communication, and information literacy through criticism and journalism practice for teens. For more information about the Press Corps program see HERE.

This review was written as part of an Arts Criticism workshop at Evergreen High School in Emily Acquino’s Language Arts classes, taught by Press Corps teaching artist Beth Pollack.