ORLANDO — Fat Ham, the new production at Orlando Shakes, is a satire on Hamlet — and a very busy play, despite a seemingly simple plot line about an African American family getting together for an afternoon cookout.

Billed by Shakes as “a southern-fried comedic take on Hamlet,” the play by James Ijames uses Hamlet’s themes of family legacy, violence and retribution, and personal destiny to comedic — and sometimes not so comedic — effect. It’s in an urban setting not likely to seem familiar to Shakespeare purists, particularly since the show explores Queer theater (two gay characters and one possibly struggling with his sexual orientation), and themes of how black families define morality and values. Like I said, this relatively short play (about 90 minutes long) is quite the active one.

Fat Ham is now being performed at Orlando Shakes through Sunday, March 29. As can be expected, the Shakes team has lined up an impressive cast to juggle Ijames’ concepts, which range from very funny to bordering on tragedy.

What is the Play Fat Ham?

Fat Ham had its premiere in April 2021 in a filmed production for Philadelphia’s Wilma Theater, then made its Off-Broadway debut at The Public Theater in May 2022, later receiving a Special Citation at the 66th Obie Awards that honored the creative team and ensemble. It’s no surprise that as a modern updating and satirical take on Hamlet, the play caught the attention of Orlando Shakes, which just completed a successful run of Shakespeare’s tragedy Romeo And Juliet. Why not find some comedy in the Bard as well?

One very updated “modern” issue in this production: sexual orientation. The play focuses on Juicy, a young gay black man who is preparing for a family cookout, getting the table ready along with his buddy Tio — and Juicy is annoyed that Tio is busy watching Internet porn on his smartphone instead of setting the table. Juicy is even more aggravated when a frantic Tio insists he just found Juicy’s late daddy (who got stabbed to death) coming out of the ice cooler (one of the show’s funniest moments). When Tio heads off to buy more beer for the cookout, Juicy discovers that his father’s ghost has indeed shown up — and wants him to be a man and kill his uncle, who is marrying Juicy’s mom Tedra.

And Juicy gets pushed even further by his macho uncle Pap, who punches him in the stomach for not being manly enough, thinks the boy is a sissy, and doesn’t do much to hide his homophobia. Juicy starts to wonder if this revenge thing isn’t such a bad idea after all.

As the entire family gathers for the cookout, the often comedic dialogue hardly prepares you for painful moments that bluntly explore how messy families can get, while consistently juggling themes of queer black identity and generational trauma. Busy, busy!

How Is the Orlando Shakes Production?

If Ijames doesn’t hesitate to toss a multitude of social issues into a relatively simple family cookout story — acceptance of oneself, acceptance of queer culture within the black community, how to define a family’s moral values — Orlando Shakes is equally eager to keep the show moving at a rapid pace. Director Roberta Emerson accomplishes that in disarming ways; one moment there are jokes about fellatio, the next a devastating and traumatic scene between Juicy and his cousin Larry, who is serving in the military but has a secret he keeps from the family — until he shares it with Juicy, who later appears to betray that trust. It leads to a shocking moment that no one is likely to see coming.

Je’shaun Jackson as Juicy and Jos N. Banks as Larry carry off that moment quite powerfully, and they both have the perfect timing and instincts for how to mix the show’s sly humor with tragic moments of betrayal and humiliation. Their strong, vibrant performances are complimented by the rest of the cast, especially Patrece Bloomfield as Juicy’s loyal but not so loyal mom and Lee Kelly, who has some of the show’s funniest moments as the raunchy Tio.

Fat Ham works best when its heart shines through the humor. I suspect Shakespeare himself would have enjoyed it.

Where Can I See Fat Ham?

Fat Ham is being performed at the Orlando Shakespeare Theater, 812 E. Rollins St. in Orlando’s Loch Haven Park. The show is being performed in the Mandell Theater and runs for 90 minutes with no intermission.

As part of this production, Orlando Shakes is selling a special Rev’s Red Drank, made of raspberry liqueur, Vodka and lemonade.

Call the box office at (407) 447-1700 for tickets or more information.

Michael Freeman is an Orlando journalist, playwright and author of the terrifying book “Bloody Rabbit”. Contact him at Freelineorlando@gmail.com.

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