Review: FAT HAM at San Francisco Playhouse

Fat Ham

By James ljames

Directed by Margo Hall

San Francisco Playhouse

Borrowing a premise from the master himself can be a great start. James ljames’ take on Shakespeare’s Hamlet transposed and flipped on its ear at a modern Black family barbeque in the South adds a fantastic twist, modern sensibility, and a whole bunch of laughs to the age-old tale of revenge. Add in Bay Area legend Margo Hall as director and a stellar ensemble cast, and this Northern California premiere of the 2022 Pulitzer Prize winner and five-time Tony nominee is a sure-fire winner.

There is so much to love about this play: from its hilarious, spot-on perspectives of the Black family, the issues of queerness on the down-low, the irreverent sexual tones, and the explorations of inherited trauma. Juicy (Devin A. Cunningham) is a Queer college kid who doesn’t want to join the family BBQ business. Fresh on the heels of his father’s murder, his mother is marrying his father’s brother, a mean man with little patience for his ‘soft’ new son. When his father’s ghost appears, clad in a ghost sheet, Juicy is charged with avenging his murder. Juicy says ‘I’m no avenger” and wants to eat his snickers. His father’s ghost, also homophobic demands justice, and the plot is set in motion.

The superb cast includes Juicy’s sex bomb mother Tedra (Jenn Stephens), Ron Chapman is a dual role as Juicy’s new father Rev and his father’s ghost Pap, Juicy’s down-low lesbian friend Opal (Courtney Gabrielle Williams), her brother Larry (Samuel Ademola), Phaedra Tillery-Boughton as Larry and Opals over-the-top religious mother,  and Jordan Covington as Tio, a scene stealing comic gem. The characters are all outrageous on their own and could become mere caricatures under another director’s hand, but Hall works magic in their interactions and staging.

Juicy breaks the fourth wall with a few Shakespeare soliloquies and there’s a similar play within a play where Juicy let’s his father’s killer know what’s what. There’s a ridiculous karaoke scene with Tedra performing a raunchy, inappropriate hip hop song which takes a poignant turn when Juicy sings Radiohead’s “Creep,” the quintessential ‘loner, I’m not worthy’ song.

Larry, a soldier, wants to be soft like Juicy and there’s a beautifully romantic scene (kudos to intimacy director Juenèe Simon) between the two. All three gay characters come out in moments of difficult self-acceptance. Jordan Covington’s Tio tells a hilarious drug-addled dream involving whack-a-mole gingerbread men that somehow turns graphically sexual in his attempt to illustrate ‘pleasure over harm.’

Ljames dialogue and Hall’s direction make Fat Ham authentic, heartfelt, funny, and poignant. Go see it for the phenomenal cast.

Photo credits: Jessica Palopoli