Philadelphia-based theater company The Wilma Theater begins its 2023-24 Season with a new production of playwright James Ijames’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play, Fat Ham. Directed by Barrymore Award-winner Amina Robinson, Ijames’s riff on Shakespeare’s Hamlet is set at a BBQ in the South and centers on Juicy, who is Black, queer, and soft – and learning to love himself. Due to popular demand, The Wilma has announced the production’s run is extended from November 24 to December 23, presented in its 300-seat theater.
In Fat Ham, Juicy (Brenson Thomas) is a queer, Southern college kid already grappling with some serious questions of identity. He’s setting up the family backyard for a party celebrating his mother Tedra’s (Donnie Hammond) recent marriage to his uncle Rev (The Wilma’s Co-Artistic Director Lindsay Smiling) when the ghost of his father Pap (also Smiling) shows up. Pap claims Rev had him killed and demands Juicy avenge him. But here’s the rub! Revenge doesn’t come easy to Juicy, a sensitive and self-aware young Black man searching for his own happiness and liberation. From an uproarious family cookout emerges a compelling examination of choosing pleasure over harm.
The world premiere of Fat Ham was presented at The Wilma as a filmed production directed by the theater’s Co-Artistic Director Morgan Green during the 2020-21 Season. The play went on to receive the 2022 Pulitzer Prize in Drama and debuted in New York for in-person audiences at The Public Theater, co-produced with the National Black Theatre.
In a first for a producing theater in Philadelphia, The Wilma co-produced Fat Ham’s successful Spring 2023 Broadway run at the American Airlines Theatre that earned five Tony Award nominations, including Best Play. This year, Fat Ham’s return to The Wilma is one of 12 regional productions being presented around the U.S., marking another stunning achievement since its debut.
Preview performances for Fat Ham are from Friday, November 24, through Wednesday, November 29. The production opens with an invite-only performance on Thursday, November 30, at 7 p.m., and runs through Sunday, December 24. Tickets start at $29 and can be purchased at http://www.wilmatheater.org or by calling the Wilma’s box office at 215-546-7824.
A four-show weekday subscription is $108 for four weekday tickets to each of the 2023-24 shows. A four-show weekend subscription is $124. The four-ticket Whenever subscription – which includes four tickets to be used in any combination throughout the season – is $148. The Wilma’s subscriptions offer theatergoers savings of up to 60% compared to single ticket purchases. Single tickets and subscriptions can be purchased at http://www.wilmatheater.org or by calling the Wilma’s
box office at 215-546-7824.
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