Written by Page Laws

It’s not about the sauce. It’s about the rub.” — barbecue master Rev, “Fat Ham”

“Ay, there’s the rub.”  — “Hamlet,” Act 3, Scene 1 (and Rev’s nephew Juicy, “Fat Ham”)

Granted, the word “rub” has slightly different meanings in the two lines above. The first is from a riotous, raunchy comedy now at Norfolk’s Wells Theatre. The second is from — you should already know this — Shakespeare’s greatest hit, the one about the moody Danish prince with an Oedipus complex. Rev (played by masterfully mean Kevin Craig West, who also doubles as the Ghost of Old Hamlet, here called Pap) is stating the absolute importance of the rub of spices in pork barbecue prep. Hamlet, for his part, is contemplating suicide to avoid his newly assigned job (via ghostly edict) of killing his murderous uncle Claudius. Here “rub” means an impediment, a problem.

Let’s approach this differently by sharing the “cheat sheet” that Pulitzer Prize winner (for this play) James Ijames provides in his script. Juicy (utterly winsome Marcus Antonio) is “a kind of Hamlet,” except for the fact that Juicy is Black, gay and “thicc” (Black slang for “attractively full-figured”). Tedra (Cloteal L. Horne), who admirably “works her body” all night long, is “a kind of Gertrude,” but without Gertrude’s royal Danish bank account. Instead, Tedra grabs her dough for a bathroom remodel, a new karaoke machine, etc., out of Juicy’s University of Phoenix tuition account — now completely empty. Tedra admits to poor impulse control, such as when she married her former brother-in-law Rev about a week after Pap was shanked in prison at Rev’s command. In the original version, Hamlet ironically points out the advantage of this: “Thrift, thrift, Horatio! The funeral baked meats/ Did coldly furnish forth the marriage tables.” If you marry a week after a funeral, you can use the leftovers for the wedding banquet.

And did we hear the name Horatio, i.e., Hamlet’s best friend, the one who sees the Ghost of Old Hamlet even before Hamlet does? Here Horatio is called Tio and brilliantly played by Adam E. Moskowitz, a Norfolk State University drama student. Moskowitz’s account of a drug-induced sex/video game about gingerbread men who do unmentionable but, to him, pleasant things is shocking but worth the price of several admissions. Other vital friends/frenemies of Hamlet also appear in this adaptation: Larry (“a kind of Laertes”) is played by Jordan Pearson, who arrives on stage wearing a Marine uniform but departs in very different costuming indeed (after admitting he, too, is gay). His sister Opal (“a kind of Ophelia”) decides she, too, is gay. Something in the water? She is acted by the excellent Janae Thompson (associated with Rouge Theater Reinvented and Virginia Musical Theatre). This leaves only Polonius to account for as a main Hamlet character. (Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are apparently already dead here; besides, they already have their own Tom Stoppard play.) Here Polonius has switched genders to female, is not stabbed, is named Rabby and is nicely portrayed by Candice Heidelberg.

If there are similarities between “Hamlet” and “Fat Ham,” be aware that differences also abound. “Hamlet” uncut takes about 4½  hours to perform, while “Fat Ham” weighs in at a svelte 90 minutes, much of which time the audience spends guffawing. (The warnings about diabetes, aka “the suga,” are both medically useful and hilarious.)…

…The other tech is, as always, VSC-style impressive. Caitlin McLeod’s set representing a Virginia backyard, circa now, comes across a bit more like a Pittsburgh backyard (i.e., reminiscent of August Wilson’s “Fences”), but much jollier since it’s hung with kitschy decorations. Director Jerrell L. Henderson handles the tricky Shakespearean parallels plus modern laughs nigh-on impeccably. The only joke that didn’t quite land on opening night was Juicy’s “I ain’t no Avenger” (meaning the superhero kind of Avenger, as well as the Shakespearean kind). Otherwise, we’re talking a thousand jokes and a thousand stuck landings.

The brothers Old Hamlet/Claudius and their modern reps Pap and Rev do not represent the brotherhood of man particularly well. In this version, Pap is killed in jail (at Rev’s behest). Pap has landed behind bars for gutting a man at the family barbecue restaurant. It turns out his victim’s breath really, really stank. Tedra/Gertrude recalls the horror of seeing “blood on the pulled pork”! As Juicy later notes, “This is what I was raised in: pig guts and bad choices.” We’ll leave the comeback for that one to Mr. Shakespeare — “What a piece of work is a man!” — though I think he meant “a piece of work” more positively than we do today.

This is a co-production with Virginia Repertory Theatre in Richmond and heads there at the conclusion of its Norfolk run. Because of language and sexual content, it’s recommended for age 14 and up.

Read the full review at The Virginian-Pilot Here

Page Laws is dean emerita of the Nusbaum Honors College at Norfolk State University. prlaws@aya.yale.edu