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A Whole New Hamlet

Staff

Fat Ham Transforms Shakespeare into Comedy

By Tina Wingate

(L to R): Mikhael Mendoza, Toddra Brunson, Cassidy Joseph, Denzel McCausland, Melvin Huffnagle, Dina Lewis, Henry Cadet.

Hamlet is probably the best known of all of Shakespeare’s plays. Its “to be or not to be” soliloquy by the prince of Denmark is among the most recited and quoted of all dramatic passages – the conflicted musings of a young man who has been visited by his father’s ghost. The conflict – that the ghost has asked him to slay his mother’s new husband – creates the dramatic arc of the play.

Fat Ham, the final production of the 2024/2025 season at GableStage, turns Hamlet on its head. It transforms the play into a rollicking comedy, where the time is today, and the players are members of a Black family about the celebrate a wedding with a backyard barbeque.

To say this play is over the top is an understatement. The characters are played large, with exaggerated enthusiasm that carries the story along with ebullience that borders on slapstick comedy. Think “Sanford and Son” meets the Bard.

The script itself is full of wit. “There’s the rub,” says Hamlet in the original play as he contemplates suicide. The “rub” in Fat Ham refers to the dry barbecue rub used to prepare ribs for the family. And that’s just the beginning.

(L to R): Henry Cadet as Juicy, Dina Lewis as Tedra, Melvin Huffnagle as Rev, and Toddra Brunson as Rabby

As in Shakespeare’s immortal play, Hamlet – in this case played as a gay South Carolina Black named Juicy – is confronted by the appearance of his father as a ghost dressed like a pimp. This being Fat Ham, the ghost rises from the clothesline, the trash bin, the barbecue pit itself, but like Hamlet tells his son that the man who is marrying his mother had him killed. In a tour de force, actor Melvin Huffnagle plays both the ghost (“Pap”) and Juicy’s father-in-law to be (the “Rev”) and their interactions provide the narrative thrust of the play.

There is a great deal of thematic layering to Fat Ham, exploring themes of self-actualization, personal courage and – not at all predicated by Hamlet – the coming out of several gay characters. Henry Cadet as Juicy has a show-stealing scene singing a karaoke version of “Creep” by Radiohead, and there is also a fair amount of sexual word play, so if references to masturbation offend you, take a pass on this play.

(L to R): Henry Cadet as Juicy, Mikhael Mendoza as Tio, Toddra Brunson as Rabby, and Cassidy Joseph as Opal

But if you are ready for a roller-coaster comedy ride, with good humor and clever dialogue, get thee to GableStage. There is good reason why playwright James Ijames won a Pulitzer Prize for writing Fat Ham, and it’s readily apparent in this presentation. Well-directed by TM Pride, well-acted by a superb ensemble cast, Fat Ham ends the season for GableStage with a feel-good bang: funny, irreverent, refreshing, and just plain fun.

FAT HAM runs now until June 15
Wednesdays through Saturdays 7:30 pm
Matinees Wednesdays and Sundays at 2 pm
Tickets: GableStage.org $45 to $55