Just like Hamlet, one who bathes in melancholia, Juicy wears his rue with a difference.
Every step he takes is laced with lead, a young, portly Black man who also wishes his too-too-solid flesh would melt and resolve itself into a dew. He often applies his weight to a trampoline that doubles as his thinking space, belly straddling the polypropylene, eyes heavily pointing towards the heavens.
In San Francisco Playhouse’s stirring and hilarious production 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 was a member of that year’s Pulitzer Drama jury). It’s not just the brilliant adaptation of one of history’s most dissected pieces of literature, but a full-on commitment from director Margo Hall and her amazing cast that exudes necessary Black joy.
Juicy (Devin A. Cunningham) has everything going against him, including being overweight and scant of breath. Pursuing an online degree in human resources is interrupted because his dad Pap (Ron Chapman) has been ghosted — literally. Now, there’s a new papa that don’t take no mess, the conniving Rev, who looks exactly like Pap. That’s more than enough for Juicy’s sultry mom Tedra (Jenn Stephens), who dives into her new man with a renewed, youthful exuberance that Juicy finds unsettling.
That discomfort makes sense, as Pap returns to earth to let Juicy know his death was by Rev’s murderous hands, and the only way to avenge him is to make Juicy’s own hands a killing weapon. One issue — Juicy ain’t the murdering type.
Characters make a tidy transition from “Hamlet” to this adaptation that challenges toxic masculinity. Tio (Jordan Covington) offers up his own wisdom 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 with her own inability to break out of such a narrow world.
Hall moves the action with a steady hand, the story revealed on the detailed scenic design by Nina Ball that has tidy tricks up its sleeve. Moments fester and maximize, from over-the-top chaos to thoughtful reveals inside the universe.
Each cast member fully commits to balancing the action. The magnificent Stephens loads her Tedra with blinders in order to rest inside Rev’s slithering arms. Rev’s vileness and the frustration of Pap exists within a terrific turn by Chapman, and Williams as Opal explodes her own truth while holding space for Juicy.
While characters inside this North Carolina barbecue move from grizzled to gaudy, Cunningham ensures the soul of Juicy is grounded. His advocacy for Juicy’s isolation mesmerizes, Cunningham displaying one heckuva range that takes the play anywhere due to his commitment to building from the inside out. His direct engagement with others hit, but his brooding when he’s not the direct focus moves the play towards exhilarating, organic payoffs.
That exhilaration comes from one more character, the military man Larry (Samuel Ademola). There is clearly mystery within Larry’s longing eyes, the home that Juicy would kill for in order to plant his whole heart. Just notice the magical yet heartbreaking scenes that Juicy and Larry offer as they secretly lose themselves within each other’s souls. The warm breaths upon their lips that puncture the tension as a desired kiss hovers dangerously are magical in the hands of Cunningham and Ademola.
There is so much to love about this production. Hilarity, memorable characters, and touches that have Juicy move from common prose directly into Shakespeare’s meter are an embarrassment of riches. And much like Horatio, whose pragmatism always proves wise, it is Tio’s stirring speech regarding pleasure by the limber-as-heck Covington that plucks the heartstrings of Juicy’s mystery.
It is a universal truth that pleasure must always be greater than harm, and Juicy’s continuous fight for his own pleasures need nobody’s permission. Society’s lowest common denominator should never have a say into anyone living their authentic, unapologetic life.
Many things carry doubt. It was Hamlet who wrote that doubt is applied to the fire within stars, the sun’s movement, or the virtues of truth. But what’s never been in doubt is Juicy’s infinite love capacity and desire for pleasure, perhaps towards a beautiful Black man of scant clothing who’s dancing his tail off unapologetically. Accepting pleasure while rejecting harm must be everyone’s truth.
In our fraught current times, making sure those who inflict harm will never be invited to the cookout is necessary.
David John Chávez is chair of the American Theatre Critics/Journalists Association and a two-time juror for the Pulitzer Prize for Drama (‘22-‘23); @davidjchavez.bsky.social.
‘FAT HAM’
By James Ijames, presented by San Francisco Playhouse
Through: April 19
Where: San Francisco Playhouse, 450 Post St.
Running time: 110 minutes, no intermission
Tickets: $35-$135; sfplayhouse.org