City Theatre presents the Pittsburgh premiere of Fat Ham, a fresh take on a classic, building something new and incisive around the premise of one of the most-quoted plays in the English language. The Pulitzer Prize-winning show turns Shakespeare’s Hamlet into a meditation on violence, masculinity, and familial obligation set in small-town North Carolina.
Written by James Ijames, Fat Ham follows Juicy (Brandon Foxworth), a young, queer Black man visited by the ghost of his recently deceased father, Pap (Khalil Kain), at a cookout celebrating the marriage of Juicy’s mother, Tedra (Maria Becoates-Bey), and his uncle, Rev (also Kain). Pap accuses his brother of masterminding his death and demands that Juicy avenge him by killing his uncle. At the same time, Juicy confronts uncertainty about his future and wrestles with whether his family and community can accept his true self as a gay man.
Fat Ham initially caught director Monteze Freeland’s attention with its successful 2022 run at New York’s Public Theater. Looking closer, Freeland says, as a comedic retelling of a classic tragedy with an all-Black cast, the play turned out to have several compelling elements that contributed to his desire to bring it to Pittsburgh.
Freeland notes that, while City Theatre has a long history of producing plays that highlight Black experiences, Fat Ham pays special attention to the lives of young, queer Black people, which Freeland takes as evidence that the world of live theater is moving toward greater inclusivity.
“It means that the canon of the American Theater is progressing toward truth and is opening the door to all types of people being the lead in an American play,” he tells Pittsburgh City Paper.
The cast is a carefully assembled mix of Freeland’s long-time collaborators, as well as actors he has admired but never worked with before, he says.
“It took a long time to cast the show,” Freeland recalls, “because it requires people who have a great sense of comedic timing, but who also can ground that comic element of this play in reality, and in truth … I really am grateful that both teams allowed me to take the time that was needed to find the people to bring these characters to life in this production.”
The City Theatre Fat Ham is a co-production with the Fayetteville, Ark.-based TheaterSquared. After the show closes in Pittsburgh, the production will travel to Arkansas for another run.
Freeland says collaborating with another theater company can make mounting a new production more affordable and offer exciting opportunities for artists and designers from both companies to work in close collaboration.
“Co-productions are truly a gift from the pandemic, which I know is odd to say,” Freeland says, “but it has allowed us to be creative in how we implement and produce plays that we love that we might not be able to produce on our own… We're really excited about taking Pittsburgh artists to another hub so that they can see what we already know here in Pittsburgh, which is that our artists are just phenomenal.”
Fat Ham boasts an entirely BIPOC creative team, about which Freeland is particularly excited. This includes scenic and media design by Sasha Schwartz, costume design by Alexis Chaney, lighting design by John D. Alexander, sound design by Howard Patterson, and dramaturgy by Dexter Singleton.
Freeland hopes Pittsburgh audiences will allow themselves to be touched by the heartfelt play, although some moments might bring discomfort.
“I hope that people will come to this play with an open heart,” Freeland says. “And know that there are going to be elements that are going to be difficult to sit through. But stick with it, because it ends with joy. And if we only just sort of stick with the hardest parts, sometimes we find that joy may just be right around the corner. I hope the audience walks away with that theme and that idea and takes it into their lives.”
Fat Ham. Continues through Sun., March 24. City Theatre. 1300 Bingham St., South Side. $40-76. citytheatrecompany.org
Fat Ham at City Theatre puts a Black, queer spin on Shakespeare's Hamlet
