Finding Strength in Softness
Exploring themes of softness and self-determination in James Ijames’s Fat Ham
I procrastinated heavily writing this piece. From the moment I first watched Fat Ham, James Ijames’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play, I knew I wanted to write about it, but the right words eluded me. My first draft opined about toxic masculinity and how it pushes men to suppress their feelings, but something about it felt off. It didn't feel like it was the piece I wanted to write nor something that captures the essence of Juicy, the show’s protagonist, and his journey in the play.
Stuck, I joined Watch Me Work, a performance piece by Suzan-Lori Parks focused on silent writing time followed by discussion. During the discussion, I decided to ask Parks about how she develops and explores the protagonists in her work. She cut straight to the point: “What does the character want? Outside of that, nothing else matters.” Her answer, albeit focused on writing plays not reviews, ultimately helped crystallize for me why I’ve been enamored with Fat Ham.
Fat Ham introduces us to Juicy (played masterfully by Marcel Spears), a young man with a simple goal: obtain his online degree from the University of Phoenix and cope with the recent death of his father. Amidst setting up a backyard cookout to celebrate his mother Tedra's (Nikki Crawford) remarriage to Juicy's uncle, Rev (Billy Eugene Jones), the ghost of Juicy's dead father appears. His Pap (Billy Eugene Jones) explains that he’s been murdered and tasks Juicy with avenging his death. If that base plot sounds familiar to you, it's because Ijames has brilliantly adapted Shakespeare's Hamlet to create this Shakespeare-esque cookout.
Juicy’s world is inundated with conflicts and reckonings: a sudden wedding, his father's demand for vengeance, and his own pursuit of his online degree. However, amidst all the chaos, his family seems more concerned with his identity as a queer individual who has seemingly become soft, rather than the unusual marriage or his father's death.
Director Saheem Ali deftly navigates the tension between stereotypical masculinity and softness through Rev (Billy Eugene Jones), Juicy’s uncle-now-dad, who constantly berates him, demanding that he toughen up. This direction is reinforced by Dominique Fawn Hill's costume designs. Whereas most of his family are in stereotypical cookout wear (think Sunday church dresses, button ups and slacks, dresses, and the like), Juicy dons dark ripped overalls and a Black Fubu shirt boldly emblazoned with “Mama’s Boy” in bright pink glitter across the chest.
He's a man in an outfit that seems anything but soft yet he’s constantly prodded about how a man with a legacy like his could turn out like this. After all, Pap, a BBQ grill master, murdered a cook at the family’s BBQ restaurant for his breath. A breath so repulsive he nearly decapitated the man while killing him. His Uncle-now-Dad Rev swooped in to marry Tedra and receives praise not admonishment for the act. Juicy’s cousin Tio (Chris Herbie Holland) is portrayed as sexually-charged young adult with a youthful naivety to the world. Opal (Adrianna Mitchell), his cousin, is a woman who desires and dreams to be tougher while her mother Rabby (Benja Kay Thomas), a classic church Auntie and Opal’s mother, pleas for her to wear dresses and acquiesce with softness. Rev might be right — with a family like this, how did Juicy end up so soft?
We also meet Larry (Calvin Leon Smith), a Marine who has made it back in time for the cookout, in full regalia. From the moment he arrives, it seems clear how we should think of him with his straight posture and commanding presence in uniform. While he’s given a hero’s welcome by most of the family, his entrance does little to rouse Juicy. Ali's direction once again highlights Juicy as an outlier within his family, refusing to conform to the stereotypes of masculinity. We see a family who thrusts value upon Larry for how he acts except our protagonist — an “empath” who respects his family’s admiration of Larry while wanting none of the baggage required to receive the same.
Yet here lies the rub — things aren’t always what they seem. Larry's encounter with Juicy reveals a tragic truth—Larry yearns to possess Juicy's softness and the ability to bless others with it. Despite all of the praise heaped on him, Larry’s life thus far is a tragedy guided by uniforms and the weight of the world versus his own true desires. Juicy’s unapologetic softness becomes a salve for not only himself, but for his whole family. He inspires Larry to unlock and share the power of his softness to the world. He helps Opal recognize the dangers of eschewing her own bloom to appease her Mom. And it's ultimately his softness that becomes a source of strength for Tedra as she navigates the chaos and dysfunction of her love life.
In a world that chastises his choices, Juicy breaks free and becomes a catalyst for his family's growth, encouraging them to confront generational traumas and redefine their notions of masculinity. And it’s a magical experience seeing the breaking of generational traumas and notions of what masculinity entails in a play that effortlessly soars between comedy, dance breaks, and individual aha! moments. Juicy becomes a mirror for his family — enabling them to see, reflect, and reckon with the exteriors they’ve so carefully crafted and maintained to obscure their own softness within. Fat Ham is a beautiful reminder to both seek and center one’s own joy.
As I walked out of a recent performance of the show, I snapped a photo of the glowing sign on stage that read, “SEE WHAT I SEE.” I didn't quite get it then but, oh do I see it now.
Fat Ham is playing through June 25th at the American Airlines Theater. You can purchase tickets here.