Save this article to read it later.
Find this story in your accountsSaved for Latersection.
James IjamessFat Hamis a play aboutHamlet,andHamletis a play about ambivalence; thereforeFat Hamis a play about ambivalence.
I mean … thats sort of true?
But equivocation does make up the texture of both plays.
To likeFat Hamor not to likeFat Ham?
Days later, that is still my question.
So what is the feeling of the as-yet-unmade choice fear, exhilaration, or delay?
For Ijames its the melting lassitude of a summer backyard get-together, somewhere in which the heat is serious.
HisHamlet-manquecould be anywhere in North Carolina, says the script, or Tennessee.
Gleaming in a bedazzled white suit, Pap wafts around in ghostly dudgeon, demanding Juicy make things right.
Hes not worried that anything bad will happen to the gay son he barely cared for.
Too soft to die young, says Pap.
You aint got it.
To perish like me.
His jokes are sly and unafraid of puns.
You know I did!
Theres a Thank ya, Jesus!
I often found it flattening and false.
The play bends reality a bit to make it seem pliable.
How intractable is generational trauma anyway?
Here, though, hes got another choice too.
Ijames and Ali create a magnificently silly farce-climax, followed by a sublimely glittery reality-breaking denouement.
And between these two sequences came my favorite moment.
They turn outwards, get ready to tell us what the play was about, and hesitate.
TEDRA: I think … its just too private.
Do you feel lighter?
TEDRA: You know what?
But this moment … ah!
But I do know Ill be thinking about that private for years to come.
Its the sort of gesture you could hang a whole play on, maybe even a whole philosophy.
Hamlet said it first:What a piece of work.
Fat Hamis at the Public Theater through July 3.
Thank you for subscribing and supporting our journalism.
