Evaluate: ‘Fat Ham’ takes on the Bard with irreverent vitality

Similar to Hamlet, one who bathes in melancholia, Juicy wears his rue with a distinction.

Each step he takes is laced with lead, a younger, portly Black man who additionally needs his too-too-solid flesh would soften and resolve itself right into a dew. He usually applies his weight to a trampoline that doubles as his considering area, stomach straddling the polypropylene, eyes closely pointing in the direction of the heavens.

In San Francisco Playhouse’s stirring and hilarious manufacturing of James Ijames‘ 2022 Pulitzer-prize-winning “Fat Ham,” there is a raucous energy that doesn’t let up for the play’s 110 consecutive minutes. (Full disclosure — I used to be a member of that 12 months’s Pulitzer Drama jury). It’s not simply the sensible adaptation of considered one of historical past’s most dissected items of literature, however a full-on dedication from director Margo Corridor and her superb solid that exudes vital Black pleasure.

Juicy (Devin A. Cunningham) has all the pieces going towards him, together with being obese and scant of breath. Pursuing an internet diploma in human assets is interrupted as a result of his dad Pap (Ron Chapman) has been ghosted — actually. Now, there’s a brand new papa that don’t take no mess, the conniving Rev, who seems to be precisely like Pap. That’s greater than sufficient for Juicy’s sultry mother Tedra (Jenn Stephens), who dives into her new man with a renewed, youthful exuberance that Juicy finds unsettling.

That discomfort is sensible, as Pap returns to earth to let Juicy know his loss of life was by Rev’s murderous arms, and the one strategy to avenge him is to make Juicy’s personal arms a killing weapon. One subject — Juicy ain’t the murdering kind.

Characters make a tidy transition from “Hamlet” to this adaptation that challenges poisonous masculinity. Tio (Jordan Covington) affords up his personal knowledge when not sizing up his porno-earning potential. The church-loving, God-fearing Rabby (Phaedra Tillery-Boughton) guffaws with Polonius-like affections and asides. And Opal (Courtney Gabrielle Williams) is struggling together with her personal incapability to interrupt out of such a slim world.

Corridor strikes the motion with a gentle hand, the story revealed on the detailed scenic design by Nina Ball that has tidy tips up its sleeve. Moments fester and maximize, from over-the-top chaos to considerate reveals contained in the universe.

Every solid member absolutely commits to balancing the motion. The magnificent Stephens hundreds her Tedra with blinders as a way to relaxation inside Rev’s slithering arms. Rev’s vileness and the frustration of Pap exists inside a terrific flip by Chapman, and Williams as Opal explodes her personal reality whereas holding area for Juicy.

Whereas characters inside this North Carolina barbecue transfer from grizzled to gaudy, Cunningham ensures the soul of Juicy is grounded. His advocacy for Juicy’s isolation mesmerizes, Cunningham displaying one heckuva vary that takes the play wherever because of his dedication to constructing from the within out. His direct engagement with others hit, however his brooding when he’s not the direct focus strikes the play in the direction of exhilarating, natural payoffs.

That exhilaration comes from another character, the navy man Larry (Samuel Ademola). There’s clearly thriller inside Larry’s longing eyes, the house that Juicy would kill for as a way to plant his complete coronary heart. Simply discover the magical but heartbreaking scenes that Juicy and Larry provide as they secretly lose themselves inside one another’s souls. The nice and cozy breaths upon their lips that puncture the stress as a desired kiss hovers dangerously are magical within the arms of Cunningham and Ademola.

There’s a lot to like about this manufacturing. Hilarity, memorable characters, and touches which have Juicy transfer from frequent prose straight into Shakespeare’s meter are a humiliation of riches. And very like Horatio, whose pragmatism at all times proves sensible, it’s Tio’s stirring speech relating to pleasure by the limber-as-heck Covington that plucks the heartstrings of Juicy’s thriller.

It’s a common reality that pleasure should at all times be better than hurt, and Juicy’s steady combat for his personal pleasures want no person’s permission. Society’s lowest frequent denominator ought to by no means have a say into anybody residing their genuine, unapologetic life.

Many issues carry doubt. It was Hamlet who wrote that doubt is utilized to the hearth inside stars, the solar’s motion, or the virtues of reality. However what’s by no means been unsure is Juicy’s infinite love capability and want for pleasure, maybe in the direction of a ravishing Black man of scant clothes who’s dancing his tail off unapologetically. Accepting pleasure whereas rejecting hurt have to be everybody’s reality.

In our fraught present occasions, ensuring those that inflict hurt won’t ever be invited to the cookout is critical.

‘FAT HAM’

By James Ijames, introduced by San Francisco Playhouse

By way of: April 19

The place: San Francisco Playhouse, 450 Submit St.

Operating time: 110 minutes, no intermission

Tickets: $35-$135; sfplayhouse.org

Initially Printed: April 4, 2025 at 1:23 PM PDT