Fat Ham

“JUICY. Don’t worry about him. He’s harmless. Fathers and sons. I can get dark. You know. When the chemistry ain’t right. When the father is too heavy and the son is too light. When the father thinks the son is too light. When the son is too heavy.”

This passage references specific lines in Hamlet that speak of the sun. In Hamlet, the prince engages in word play on “sun” and “son” to speak of his father’s influence upon him. Here, Juicy evokes similar wordplay with “heavy” and “light.”

“JUICY. He can’t pound on me anymore. He locked up for eternity. He doesn’t seem to be in Hell. Which makes me contemplate the afterlife and purgatory and angels and my own mortality and what have you. He too evil to be in Heaven. What do you do when God don’t want you and the devil won’t have you.”

Juicy is not fearful of Pap because, as a ghost, Pap can no longer physically harm him. Juicy contemplates the state of Pap’s soul, certain that, because of the abuse he committed when alive, he cannot be in a pleasant afterlife. Juicy, in contrast to Hamlet, speaks in a modern vernacular: "He locked up for eternity.”

“JUICY. Don’t you miss him?

TEDRA. Who?

JUICY. Pap.

TEDRA. My memory of him won’t let me miss him.

JUICY. Whoa.

TEDRA. If you think about something every day…you not really remembering it. It’s just there. Like heartburn.

JUICY. It’s pain.

TEDRA. It’s nothing, honey.”

Tedra does not mourn the death of her husband because, as the text implies, he was cruel to her. The trauma she has experienced remains a part of her, though she tries to pretend that this is not the case. Later, Tio will speak of the generational trauma that Juicy has experienced, which fits with Tedra’s words. The above text uses a simile, where something is compared to something else using “like” or “as.” In this case, Tedra compares her memory of Pap to “heartburn,” implying its negativity while minimizing its impact.

“TIO. You still love your pops? Not sure?

JUICY. I wanna love him. He my daddy. That means something.

TIO. Does it?”

Juicy reveals that he wishes he could feel love toward his father, as he knows that a father plays an important role in one’s life. It is suggested elsewhere in the play, however, that Juicy does not mourn Pap’s death, as Pap was cruel and abusive throughout Juicy’s life.

“REV. You know…I always liked your little ass. You had gumption. […] But then you grew up a little bit. And you got soft. And you was nothing like your daddy or like me. You was soft. And men in our family ain’t soft. And I started to think, look at this little pocket of nothing.”

Rev’s disdain for Juicy is largely based on Juicy’s failure to fulfill traditional gender norms of masculinity—lacking masculinity makes a man weak, in Rev’s estimation. His words suggest that he doesn’t tolerate Juicy for being gay.

“REV. You see this man right here Juice [referring to Larry]. He got goals. He got vision. He got talents and hirable skills.

JUICY. He does.

REV. Hirable skills. He ain’t out here musing. He know how to kill people. You can’t even slaughter a hog.”

Rev commends Larry for displaying traits of traditional masculinity and joining the Marines. Though traditional masculinity is uncomfortable for Larry to inhabit, he does so in the hopes of garnering praise, primarily from his mother. Rev’s assertion that Juicy is incapable of killing a person is ironic, given Pap’s instructions that Juicy avenge his death.

“JUICY. When I was just about seven years old I asked my mother for a doll. A Black Barbie dressed in pink. She bought the doll and wrapped it up in gold. Truth be told, that was a thoughtful touch. I ripped into it and found the brown perfection. Adornments, ornaments, and crisp brown skin. The doll was mine and taught me beauty. Softness. Tenderness. Realness. Pap took the doll I loved so much and threw it in the smoker. He laughed. He said he did it for my own good. Just be a man, just be more like the boys. And man I cried, I cried all night it seemed. I cried so much I thought I could not breathe.”

Juicy reveals one of the ways he was punished as a child by Pap for his refusal to display traditional masculinity. Juicy insists that feminine traits were the most instrumental in his development as a child. Tedra’s purchase of the doll for him illustrates that Tedra does not object to Juicy displaying feminine qualities.

“TEDRA. I ain’t trying to be talking all deep with you. Them people judging your mama. They done already made up they minds about what I’m worth. What I get to feel. What I get to do. No ma’am. Now I know you working some shit out. And you should work that out cause you got real things to work out. But you make it plain up in here bout the facts. I don’t want them saying nothing about my life choice and why I did what I did.”

Tedra defends her marriage to Rev, asserting that it was not something she was forced into but something that she chose. She disregards the spiteful gossip that circles her and shows confidence in her decision. However, her lack of emotional upheaval after Rev’s death suggests that she doesn’t love him, and, in fact, feels better off without him.

“OPAL. I feel like I’m just on the edge of figuring something out. You know?

JUICY. I know what you mean.

OPAL. Maybe we are like superhuman and like boom…we on the verge of gaining our powers but there’s something that’s like holding us back.”

Opal wavers between confidence in her identity as a queer woman and reluctance to shirk the expectations of society. She senses that when she is confident enough to disregard expectations completely, she will have genuine power and authority.

“JUICY. You don’t have to be what your mama wants you to be. That dress. That’s not you.

OPAL. What am I supposed to do?

JUICY. What do you want to do?”

Juicy tries to encourage Opal to assert her own identity and to disregard the pressures others place upon her to comply with gender norms. Opal indicates that resisting such pressure is not always easy. As the play concludes, she will gain the strength to assert her own unique personhood.

“JUICY. We got a hard road.

OPAL. Yeah.

JUICY. Think we will survive?

OPAL. I will. I’m not sure about you.

JUICY. Me either.”

Juicy and Opal speak of their status as gay individuals—a marginalized status that will make their lives difficult to navigate in a world dominated by heterosexuals. Opal is confident that she will triumph but is unsure whether Juicy is strong enough to.

“RABBY. She always running around looking like a boy so I made her go down to Mrs. Lloyd’s and pick out a dress for today. Since we celebrating and whatnot.

OPAL. I don’t like it.

RABBY. Imagine being that pretty and wanting to hide it all up under a hoodie. I wasn’t pretty as a girl. Look at that face. I would have killed for that face. You look pretty, Opal.”

Rabby does not understand why Opal would not want to showcase her beauty and her femininity by wearing a dress. She is oblivious to Opal’s sexuality and regards Opal’s refusal to comply with her wishes as obstinate. One could argue that she herself is the obstinate one and that she is willfully ignoring her daughter’s gayness.

“JUICY […] I’ll have these players

play something like the murder of my father

Before mine uncle. I’ll observe his looks.

I’ll tent him to the quick. If he do blench

I know my course.”

Juicy suggests the game of charades to trick Rev into revealing his guilt for Pap’s death. Here, Juicy recites Hamlet’s precise words in a way that draws attention to Fat Ham’s use of Hamlet as a model. The play juxtaposes Hamlet’s archaic language with the contemporary vernacular of the modern-day characters.

“JUICY. You’ve killed people, right?

LARRY. Why do you ask me that?

JUICY. I’m curious.

LARRY. Why, why you wanna know that?

JUICY. I just wanted to know.

LARRY. It cost something. It plays on a loop in your mind’s eye. You keep sitting in the stew and the sink of the whole memory. It don’t make you special.”

Juicy contemplates murdering Rev. Like Hamlet, he tries to gather information about such an act’s repercussions. Larry reveals, contrary to Rev’s assertion, that there is no glory in taking another person’s life and that the trauma of such an act haunts the offender.

“LARRY. You turned out so soft.

JUICY. I’m not soft.

LARRY. Yes you are.

JUICY. What makes you say that?

LARRY. It’s not bad. I want to be soft again.

JUICY. What’s stopping you?

LARRY. People decide what they want you to be. It’s hard to fight that.

JUICY. Worth it though.”

Larry echoes Rev’s assertion that Juicy is “soft,” though he means it in a positive way. He is alluding to the way that Juicy performs his gender and gayness, rather than hiding it like Larry does. Larry envies Juicy’s ability to express his identity despite the disapproval it may garner. Larry’s description of Juicy as “soft” indicates that he finds this preferable to the “hard” masculinity that is expected of him.

“LARRY. If I were like you…I probably would have saved someone’s life.

JUICY. Right.

LARRY. Can you save me?

JUICY. I don’t know what that means.”

Larry refers to saving someone rather than killing someone. This is meant to remind the audience of Pap’s mandate that Rev be killed. Larry’s words suggest it is better to help someone than to seek vengeance. Larry wants to stop hiding his true self but does not know how; he asks Juicy for help as he admires Juicy’s confidence to be himself.

“(Larry heads for the door)

JUICY. What are you going to do?

(Larry goes into the house. Juicy looks at us).

JUICY. What a piece of work is a man! How noble in reason!

How infinite in faculty! In form and moving how

Express and admirable!”

Juicy again recites one of Hamlet’s soliloquies. This time, the soliloquy references the struggles that Larry faces to assert his identity. The praise of men as a “piece of work” can also be interpreted as Juicy praising men as sexual beings that he admires.

“JUICY. Shakespeare.

REV. If you bring up that dead old white man one mo time. Don’t nobody wanna talk about his ass. You act like he got all the answers. You look crazy out here quoting Shakespeare and shit.

JUICY. It seems appropriate.”

The reference to Shakespeare reminds the audience of how the play is modeled after Hamlet. Rev’s annoyance reveals his ignorance of the plot—and how it is manifesting in his own life. He regards himself as constantly being in a position of power; Juicy’s knowledge of Rev’s crime subverts this.

“TEDRA. Don’t go crazy, Son. I need you.

JUICY. Okay. Okay.

TEDRA. I know it’s hard.

JUICY. What’s hard?

TEDRA. Just…being someone like you…in a place like this. You my little man. My best friend. I don’t know how to be without you. You don’t get to crazy.”

Tedra fears that Juicy is “going crazy” because of Juicy’s reaction to Pap’s ghost, which she can’t see. Her fear also alludes to the angst that plagues Hamlet as he debates whether to follow the ghost’s orders. In the above passage, Tedra acknowledges the struggles that Juicy faces as a queer man and gives him her full support. In turn, she wants him to support her too.

“OPAL. Mama stop. I meant it.

RABBY. Why can’t you be more like Larry.

OPAL. Cause I ain’t Larry. I don’t wanna be like Larry. I don’t wanna be like you. I don’t wanna be like Tio. I don’t wanna be like Juicy.”

Rabby demands loyalty from her children and expects them to embody specific traits that she deems acceptable. Opal tries to convey to Rabby her desire to be her own person and to decide for herself who she will become in the future. She emphasizes this with the repetition of “I don’t wanna.” Larry has consistently complied by pretending to be the person Rabby wishes him to be, but Opal will not.

“LARRY. I wasn’t ready. […]

JUICY. You were never going to be ready, Larry. I did you a favor.

LARRY. What?

JUICY. Just say it. You’ll feel better.”

Juicy’s outing of Larry is a moment of conflict and tension. Larry is angry that Juicy forces him to acknowledge his queerness. Juicy insists that he did this out of love, that he is helping Larry do what Larry knows he must do.

“(Larry slams Juicy’s face into the table two times. Boom. Boom. He doesn’t want to kill him but he does want to hurt him. Juicy emerges from this with a bloody nose)

OPAL. Larry!

LARRY [to Juicy]. You always talk about how people treat you. But you can be cruel Juicy. You not perfect. That wasn’t yours to share.”

Larry’s attack on Juicy mirrors Laertes’s killing of Hamlet. Larry’s anger and frustration for Juicy outing him takes over. He asserts that the decision to come out is a personal decision that should not be forced by someone else.

“TIO […] You decide right then to stop accepting what has always been. And just like that, your buzz is starting to wear off and you start to build, in your mind, what your world is going to look like.”

Tio’s speech is lengthy and filled with comical moments, but it culminates in unexpected wisdom. Tio is the rare young person in the play who does not feel any pressure to comply with the expectations of others or social norms. He urges others to do the same in a way that points to the ridiculousness of living for others’ approval.