It’s the rub that makes the difference, not the sauce.  Or so we are told by Fancy’s stepfather and uncle who now runs the family BBQ restaurant somewhere far south of Elsinore in James ljames’ Fat Ham which opened on Wednesday at Canadian Stage, Berkeley Street.  Director Philip Akin describes it as an “overlay” on a well known play by Shakespeare and that’s probably as good a way of looking at it as any.

Juicy is a young gay man who is studying for an on-line degree in Human Resources.  His mother Tedra has just married his uncle following the death in prison of his father.  Juicy basically wants out; out of the family BBQ business, out of the small southern town, but his father’s ghost wants revenge and his mother has spent his college fund on renovating the bathroom.  When his mother gets the karaoke machine out his selection is Radiohead’s Creep; “But I’m a creep, I’m a weirdo”.  The other young folk are mostly gay and equally unhappy with the hand they have been dealt.  Opel wants a more active life than her mother Rabby can conceive; maybe she could join the Marines, like her brother Larry who is actually happier in an evening dress than a dress uniform.  Juicy’s friend Tio basically gets by on dope and beer.  The older generation don’t get it.  The uncle; now patriarch of the family, doesn’t get Juicy and can only imagine him as a manly man and heir to the family business.  Tedra is basically a good time girl who will “stand by her man” and Rabby has a past to conceal.

This plays out with charades, karaoke, cross dressing, ghostly visitations and Juicy quoting some substantial chunks of Hamlet.  Ultimately, I suppose, it’s asking the question “What dreams we may have?” or not.  And how far can we, should we, go in realising them.  Fat Ham embeds these questions in a very tightly written and directed and often very funny comedy.  Many, perhaps most of Shakespeare’s themes are there but wrapped in a very different package.

And it’s extremely well acted.  Peter Fernandes is perfect as Juicy. He comes over as slightly bemused by the world and as someone who isn’t invested enough in where he is or where he’s going to do anything drastic.  His karaoke rendition of Creep is simultaneously very sad and very funny.  He also transitions from normal mode to declaiming perfectly nuanced Shakespeare seamlessly.  David Alan Anderson, as the patriarch, is quite menacing, even a bit sinister with several telling references to butchering hogs.  Raven Daudra is a hoot as Tedra.  Her karaoke scene is hilarious and she generally comes over as someone who is trying just a bit too hard to make everyone like her; probably with some chemical assistance.  Virgilia Griffith, as Opal, and Tawiah McCarthy, as Larry, also make an attractive pair, convincingly conveying an air of wanting to be somewhere (anywhere?) and someone (anyone?) else.  Nehassaiu deGannes, as Rabby, is quite enigmatic.  On the face of it she’s a respectable church going woman but hints that there’s more to her than that; as we learn.  Tony Ofori as Tio manages to appear pretty much unfazed by anything around him.

The straightforward set design; porch, patio, BBQ smoker, means the action can play through without interruption and atmosphere is effectively created by clever sound design (Jacob Lin) and some excellent projections (Laura Warren), especially in the karaoke scene.  The play runs ninety minutes without intermission and the time flies by.

Fat Ham runs at Canadian Stage’s Berkeley Street Theatre until March 9th.

Photo credits: Dahlia Katz