‘Fat Ham’ at Studio Theatre Review: Great Dane

metroweekly.com:

Fat Ham, James Ijames relocates Shakespeare’s Hamlet from the kingdom of Denmark to a modern-day backyard in “North Carolina, or Virginia, or Maryland, or Tennessee.”The playwright infuses the tale with the culturally specific atmosphere of Black Americana — pork on the grill, brown liquor flowing, and Frankie Beverly singing “Before I Let Go” as a grown and sexy couple grooves to the music.

But instead of a pondering prince, we have melancholy only-son Juicy (Marquis D. Gibson) as our de facto host.The vibrant, emotionally rich production of the Pulitzer Prize-winning comedy at Studio, directed by Taylor Reynolds, plunks the audience down in that backyard — which probably isn’t in Maryland, since nobody’s serving crab — for an up-close seat at a family BBQ filled with laughs, fun, fights, fabulous karaoke, and, obviously, Shakespearean levels of raging domestic dysfunction.Despite the genuine sense of love and fellowship at this gathering, a poison eats away at the heart of Juicy’s family — or rather, a poisonous mixture of the ills that ravage many families.Violence, betrayal, and generations of trauma are personified in Juicy’s uncle, Rev (Greg Alverez Reid), the fratricidal usurper of his brother’s house and beautiful wife, Tedra (Tanesha Gary).Rev is also bitterly demeaning towards his nephew — now stepson — Juicy, who is gay, and none too pleased to see his mother married to this creep.

And that’s before Juicy is visited by the ghost of his dead dad, Pap (also Reid), sporting an angelic white suit with a ghostly glow, courtesy of costume designer Danielle Preston.Pap warns of “Some scary stuff happening,” then entreats Juicy to avenge his murder by slaughtering Rev like a hog.