What a piece of work!
Funny, moving, sexy, and smart, San Francisco Playhouse’s production of “Fat Ham,” running through April 19, is the best theater the Bay Area has seen this year. James Ijames’ loose, liberating take on “Hamlet,” winner of the 2022 Pulitzer Prize for drama, is directed by Margo Hall, who helms a perchance-to-dream team. The cast plays with the fractious intimacy of longtime friends and family, and the production crew propels them with irresistible assists.
The vivid backyard party setting by scenic designer Nina Ball and prop designer Amy Benjamin; the oft-flamboyant costumes and wigs by Lee Garber-Patel and Amber Loudermilk, lighting by Stephanie Johnson, and sound by Ray Archie, set up and break down the fourth wall in split seconds, are all three-point fabulous.
The big swish at the center of it all is Juicy (Devon A. Cunningham), Ijames’ extrapolated Hamlet, written and played here with an emphasis on moodiness and sass more than agony and vengeance.
and Phaedra Tillery-Boughton in 'Fat Ham’ (photo: Jessica Palopoli)
Kin and less than kind
Juicy is the twentyish heir to a smoked meat misfortune. His misogynist, homophobe father, Pap, recently imprisoned for the murder of an employee at the family’s barbecue joint, has, in turn, been shivved and slaughtered in the pen.
Pap’s ghost (resplendent in a sequin-trimmed white tux under bedsheet outerwear) drops by with the news that his misogynist, homophobe brother Rev arranged for the jailhouse killing. He beeseches Juicy to gut his uncle in revenge. Ron Chapman plays both patriarchs with comic bluster and condescension.
Alas, Uncle Rev has designs on Stepdaddydom. Just a week after Pap’s funeral, he’s married widowed sister-in-law Tedra (Jenn Stephens) and the couple has demanded that Juicy prepare the yard for a nuptial celebration.
His resistance to this festivity is spelled out on the helium balloons he decorates with; in lieu of “Just Married,” they read “Garage Sale” and “Baby Boy.”
But Baby Boy is about to grow up fast. After the arrival of Tedra’s churchy friend, Rabby (Phaedra Tillery-Broughton) and her children –Opal (Courtney Gabrielle Williams), an unborn baby dyke just busting to breach, and Larry (Samuel Ademola), a childhood playmate of Juicy’s who is now in the military– unspoken truths spill fast and furious.
As Tedra genuinely opens up to her son rather than reflexively overprotecting him, Stephens deepens her portrayal, revealing that her relentless hip-swiveling sexiness has also been a form of armor. The tenderness and resentments that emerge between Juicy and Larry are heartwrenching.
While customarily held back, there’s a profound empathy shared by the women and adult children here; a deeply felt opposition to the cycle of male aggression and violence that has damaged their families over generations. Facing history about to repeat itself in Rev and Tedra’s relationship. They end up celebrating themselves instead of the doomed marriage.
Soul of wit
In a similarly jovial mode, playwright Ijames refrains from overemphasizing the underbelly of his story; likewise with his many clever “Hamlet” references. They provide bonus laughs, but no obstacle to those unfamiliar with the Shakespeare original. That said, turning the Bard’s play-within-a-play into a game of charades is a bit of genius.
The playwright has also stocked his party with a killer soundtrack, including Teena Marie, Luther Vandross, Cece Peniston, and not-of-Denmark Prince. He gives Cunningham a karaoke soliloquy of Radiohead’s “Creep” that’s simultaneously self-glorifying and self-indulgent, a gleefully perverse ode to otherness.
For most of its 90-minute run time, “Fat Ham” is dominated by comedy. Tillery-Broughton’s Phaedra, whose suit, feathered hat, and lipstick are a matching shade of pink, has all the “Hallelujah!” moves one sees in the pews, even when she’s planted on a picnic bench. When other characters blaspheme, she corkscrews her face like a cherub who’s smelled a fart.
And while Juicy’s stoner pal Teo is somewhat peripheral to the plot, Jordan Covington plays him like a grace note personified. His ear-to-ear smile, goofy gait, and delicious comic timing are sincere, endearing, and gently charismatic. You walk away humming this guy.
“Fat Ham” serves up a version of the meaty, laugh-out-loud, socially conscious comedy that was once a television staple. It’s “Hamlet” by way of King Norman Lear.
'Fat Ham,' through April 19. $35-$135. San Francisco Playhouse, 450 Post St. www.sfplayhouse.org
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