The formidable “fat ham” is an explosion to SF Playhousea faces the bard with irreverent energy

Like Hamlet, the one who bathes melancholy, Juicy carries his street with a difference.

Each step he takes is prevented from lead, a young portable black man who also wants his too solid flesh to be founded and resolved in dew. He often applies his weight to a trampoline which doubles his space of thought, from the belly straddling on the polypropylene, his eyes pointing strongly towards the heavens.

In the moving and hilarious production of San Francisco Playhouse of “Fat Ham” by James Ijames, privileged of Pulitzer, there is a hoarse energy which does not let go for the 110 consecutive minutes of the room. (Complete disclosure – I was a member of this year’s dramatic jury of Pulitzer). It is not only the brilliant adaptation of one of the most dissected literature parts in history, but a full commitment by director Margo Hall and her incredible casting that gives off the necessary black joy.

Juicy (Devin A. Cunningham) has everything that happens against him, including being overweight and little breath. The continuation of an online diploma in human resources is interrupted because his father PAP (Ron Chapman) has been a ghost – literally. Now there is a new dad who does not take a mess, the accomplice review, which looks exactly like PAP. It is more than enough for Juicy’s sensual mother, Tedra (Jenn Stephens), who plunges into her new man with a young and renewed exuberance that Juicy finds disturbing.

This discomfort makes sense, because PAP comes back to earth to let Juicy know that his death was by the deadly hands of Rev, and the only way to avenge him is to make Juicy a killing weapon. A problem – Juicy is not the type of murder.

The characters make a tidy transition of “Hamlet” to this adaptation which questions toxic masculinity. TIO (Jordan Covington) offers his own wisdom when he does not size his porn potential. The rabby who loves the church and fearing God (Phaedra Tillery-Boughton) laughs with affections and damage in the shape of a polonius. And Opal (Courtney Gabrielle Williams) has trouble with her own inability to get out of such a narrow world.

Hall moves the action with a regular hand, the story revealed on the detailed panoramic design of Nina Ball which put towers in its sleeve. The moments are transmitted and maximize, from exaggerated chaos to reflected revelations inside the universe.

Each member of the distribution fully undertakes to balance the action. The magnificent Stephens loads his Tedera with stalls in order to rest inside the sliding arms of Rev. The return of the re -and frustration of PAP exists in a formidable turning point by Chapman, and Williams while Opal explodes his own truth while holding space for Juicy.

While the characters inside this barbecue of North Carolina move from Grizzled to see, Cunningham ensures that Juicy’s soul is anchored. His plea for the isolation of Juicy has mesmeris, Cunningham displaying a Heckuva range which takes the game anywhere because of its commitment to build from the inside. His direct engagement with the others struck, but his brood when he is not the direct objective advances the room towards exhilarating organic gains.

This joie de vivre comes from another character, the military man Larry (Samuel Ademola). There is clearly a mystery in Larry’s eyes, the house for which juicy would kill to plant all his heart. Just notice the magic but heartbreaking scenes that Juicy and Larry offer as they secretly get lost in the souls of the other. The hot breaths on their lips which puncture the tension while a desired kiss dangerously hangs is magic in the hands of Cunningham and Ademola.

There is so much to love in this production. The hilarity, the memorable characters and the keys which have a juicy movement of the common prose directly in the Shakespeare counter are an embarrassment of wealth. And a bit like Horatio, whose pragmatism is always wise, it is the moving discourse of TIO concerning the pleasure by the limbo as a corington which attributes the heart of the mystery of Juicy.

It is a universal truth that pleasure must always be greater than evil, and Juicy’s continuous fight for his own pleasures does not need anyone’s permission. The lowest common denominator of society should never have a say to anyone who lives its authentic and shameless life.

Many things have a doubt. It was Hamlet who wrote that doubt is applied to fire in the stars, the movement of the sun or the virtues of the truth. But what has never been in doubt is Juicy’s infinite ability of infinite love and the desire for pleasure, perhaps towards a handsome black man with few clothes that dances shamelessly. Accepting pleasure while rejecting damage must be everyone’s truth.

In our current heavy times, ensuring that those who inflict damage will never be invited to the barbecue is necessary.

David John Chávez is president of the American Theater Critics / Journalists Association and a double juror for the Pulitzer Prize for the theater (’22 -’23); @ davidjchavez.bsky.social.

‘Fat Ham’

By James Ijames, presented by San Francisco Playhouse

Through: April 19

Or: San Francisco Playhouse, 450 Post St.

Operating time: 110 minutes, no intermission

Tickets: $ 35- $ 135; sfplayhouse.org

Originally published: April 4, 2025 at 1:23 p.m.