39 pages 1 hour read

Fat Ham

Fiction | Play | Adult | Published in 2023

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Summary and Study Guide

Overview

Fat Ham is a Pulitzer Prize-winning one-act play by playwright James Ijames that premiered in 2021. It recounts tensions in a Black Southern family through its protagonist Juicy, a young queer man who struggles with his identity and life purpose. In a reinterpretation of Shakespeare’s Hamlet, Juicy is ordered by the ghost of his late father to kill his mother’s new husband (Juicy’s uncle and his deceased father’s brother). Each of the play’s seven characters parallels a character in Hamlet. The play addresses issues of Southern identity, as well as what it means to be Black and an LGBTQIA+ person in the 21st century. It explores family bonds and expectations while raising questions about the obligations of family loyalty.

James Ijames is an actor, director, and playwright who has received numerous accolades. An associate professor of theater at Villanova, he holds a BA in drama and an MFA in acting. His numerous plays, which include The Most Spectacularly Lamentable Trial of Miz Martha Washington; White, Welcome Table; Media/Medea; and Passion of Osiris, have been produced in numerous cities, including New York, Chicago, and Philadelphia.

Fat Ham was awarded the 2022 Pulitzer Prize in Drama and was a 2023 Tony nominee for Best Play.

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