{"id":362655,"date":"2025-08-21T18:03:10","date_gmt":"2025-08-21T18:03:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/362655\/"},"modified":"2025-08-21T18:03:10","modified_gmt":"2025-08-21T18:03:10","slug":"fat-ham-review-hamlet-becomes-a-booty-shaking-barbecue-in-glittery-pulitzer-winner-theatre","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/362655\/","title":{"rendered":"Fat Ham review \u2013 Hamlet becomes a booty-shaking barbecue in glittery Pulitzer winner | Theatre"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">If you\u2019ve ever felt <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/stage\/hamlet\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" data-component=\"auto-linked-tag\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Hamlet<\/a> needs less gore and more glitterball, then tuck into Fat Ham. James Ijames\u2019s play won a Pulitzer prize in 2022; set at a Southern backyard barbecue, its sensibility, Black and queer, does more than piggyback on Shakespeare\u2019s tragedy.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">This play\u2019s pensive prince is Juicy (a winning Olisa Odele). His father has just died in prison, and the sun-bright party celebrates the hasty marriage of Juicy\u2019s mom and uncle. Strapping but soft, in his Mama\u2019s Boy T-shirt, Juicy\u2019s moping irks his new stepdaddy (\u201cthink he some kinda philosopher-poet\u201d).<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">Manning the grill is Uncle Rev: greedy, domineering, knows his way round a pig. A limber Sule Rimi plays Rev and the furious ghost of Juicy\u2019s Dad, emerging from a gingham tablecloth to demand gut-spilling vengeance (\u201cit\u2019s a bit Old Testament,\u201d winces Juicy). Hamlet is a tragedy of the young trapped in the ethics of their elders: Ijames lets them talk back. The ghost may crave justice, but was also a harsh father, mean husband and a murderer. Must Juicy live in his shadow?<\/p>\n<p>Resplendent \u2026 Sandra Marvin in Fat Ham.  Photograph: Ali Wright<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">Shakespeare\u2019s characters are hemmed in by bad choices and narrow options. Here they dream big: this play\u2019s Ophelia wants to open a shooting range, its Horatio ponders starting an OnlyFans account and Polonius becomes a clucking church lady with a past (Sandra Marvin, resplendent in mauve). What does Juicy want? He is still finding out.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">Audiences seeking Shakespeare references will be in hog heaven: the conscience-catching play becomes a game of charades, and people keep catching Juicy mid-soliloquy and wonder what secrets he\u2019s spilling. Ijames\u2019s writing is full of charm and crackle, and there\u2019s a bravery in his refusal to valorise tragedy or trundle through inherited trauma. Why must stories end in death? What if we lose the swords and instead do shots?<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">The play\u2019s commitment to joy is elevated by the fun-times production (by Sideeq Heard, based on Saheem Ali\u2019s original) and a terrific British cast (Jasmine Elcock\u2019s glowering, kinetic Opal is a particular treat). There\u2019s good booty work in the choreography by Darrell Grand Moultrie: never mind the hams, it\u2019s all about the butts. Fat Ham isn\u2019t a masterpiece but helps its characters find their way to happiness.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\"> At the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rsc.org.uk\/fat-ham\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Swan theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon<\/a>, until 13 September<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"If you\u2019ve ever felt Hamlet needs less gore and more glitterball, then tuck into Fat Ham. James Ijames\u2019s&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":362656,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[77,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-362655","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-uk","10":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115068076401131834","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/362655","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=362655"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/362655\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/362656"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=362655"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=362655"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=362655"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}