Fat Ham

Winner of the 2022 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, James Ijames' play reinvents Shakespeare's Hamlet in startling and hilarious ways amidst the backdrop of a family barbecue in the American South. Staged by the RSC in 2025.

'It's amazing what fathers think they own of their sons just 'cause we share a name.'Juicy is a queer college kid from the American South, already grappling with some serious questions of identity, when the ghost of his father shows up in the backyard, demanding that Juicy avenge his murder. The story is familiar, but what's different is Juicy himself: a sensitive and self-aware young Black man trying to break the cycles of trauma and violence that have constrained him. Winner of the 2022 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, James Ijames's play Fat Ham reinvents Shakespeare's Hamlet in startling and hilarious ways against the backdrop of a Southern family barbecue. A delectable comic tragedy and a compelling examination of love and loss, pain and joy, the play was originally co-produced Off-Broadway by The Public Theater and National Black Theatre in 2022, before transferring to Broadway in 2023 and being nominated for five Tony Awards, including Best Play. It received its European premiere at the Swan Theatre with the Royal Shakespeare Company in Stratford-upon-Avon in 2025.