Unexpected Beauty in a Play About a Barbecue
Review of Fat Ham at Seattle Repertory Theatre
Written by Alpine Snow during an Arts Criticism workshop at Evergreen High School
Subverting expectations is the name of the game with this play. Fat Ham is a loose adaptation of Shakespeare’s titular play Hamlet. This play written by James Ijames is a wonderful example of subversion that deserves recognition. It truly feels like a modern take on the works of Shakespeare, who, bear in mind, actually wrote a large amount of comedies. The humor and tragedy are blended so finely that it will leave you in both kinds of tears.
Its intentional focus on Hamlet isn’t just superficial or simply the base in the blend of a story, but the core of which the whole story sits on, allowing the reflection of Shakespeare's work to be visible throughout this play. The values of this story flipped on its head as the story asks, “Why must it be this way?” creating comedy in the face of would-be tragedy. With the focus character of this play being Juicy, our Hamlet counterpart focuses on why one should be allowed to be soft combined with the hardships one would face as one strives for it. This perfectly compliments Larry, the Laertes counterpart which at first seems to coincide with Laertes much more than Juicy with Hamlet, with how he served in the military and even more so with him being an honor-bound yes-man. But if you look closer you see an inner softness that wants to escape the pressure put on him that is practically restraining him to that version of him that other people want him to be.
And with just two characters you see the complexity of these subversions placed on Shakespeare’s play while still sticking to it. However, the changes to the story's structure were the only part I'm mixed about because the constant alternation between profoundness and comedy places a small strain on how a story can be told due to how punchlines are much left discarded rather than extended. This meant that some parts of the story were hurried off stage after the joke was made. But that just means that the play is just that much more humorous as a result, leaving you with moments where just as an actor is beautifully presenting a tragic scene, another one will walk on stage and flip it into a comedic one effortlessly.
And at the end of it all is the subversion of societal norms. This one was clear, Fat Ham was upfront with this, and they didn’t try to shy away from it. Juicy, the main character in the play is Queer, and without giving away too much; the other characters definitely defy societal norms in a variety of different ways. The way the play tells its story is interesting because right off the bat you can tell the theme, yet it twines it with good humor in such a way to make you feel closer to the characters purposely. With that closeness, it lets you be swept up in a story about being yourself and the challenge that comes with that. It’s honestly a real shame that being yourself goes against societal norms because I think what Fat Ham tells its audience is one everyone should learn; that you are happier when you are yourself.
So as I said before, the play excels at subversion, it knows what kind of mindset you’ll be in when you walk into a play that is based on Hamlet. You know the story, the characters, and the author’s ideals when it comes to Shakespeare’s play, but you definitely won’t know what to expect with this adaptation written by James Ijames, and that’s the point. The play isn’t life changing, but it feels like a breath of fresh air in a world filled with doom and gloom. To those people who feel trapped by the world around them, and to those with an open heart: this play will leave you with a better feeling of what’s to come if you explore who you are. I know that’s how I felt.
Lead Photo Credit: Aishé Keita, Taj E.M. Burroughs, Dedra D. Woods, and Reginald André Jackson in Fat Ham (2024) at Seattle Rep. Photo by Bronwen Houck.
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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.
