Ebony Marshall-Oliver performs"Whatta Man" in"Fat Ham," a coproduction of the Huntington Theatre Company, Front Porch Arts Collective and the Alliance Theater, at the Calderwood Pavilion.
“Fat Ham” opens with Tio loafing while Juicy disconsolately decorates his backyard to celebrate his mother’s remarriage to his uncle just a week after his father’s death. Within moments, the ghost of Juicy’s father Pap appears, first visible to Tio and then to Juicy, demanding Juicy avenge his murder. But Juicy is “soft,” and his uncertainty about committing violence against his uncle is complicated by his feelings for his father –"Fathers and sons,” says Tio, “it can get.
Some of the most affecting moments deepen our understanding of characters we thought we knew, while bringing them into 2023 with rapid-fire dialogue, references and conflicts familiar to any family. Ijames revises Hamlet’s soliloquies to fit his needs until he gets to “What a piece of work is man,” as Juicy wonders why “grown feels lonely and confused.”
Alfred, playing both Juicy’s father Pap and his new stepdad Rev, delivers both roles with a kind of kinetic energy that lifts the room every time he’s onstage. Whether Pap’s dismissing his dream of a career in human resources with “who goes to college online to learn how to manage human beings?” or as Rev, humiliating Juicy with a sucker punch to the gut, their tendency toward violence and bullying is unmistakable.
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