Photos: FAT HAM European Premiere in Rehearsals at RSC

You can now get a first look inside rehearsals for the European premiere of Fat Ham by James Ijames. Winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, and nominated for five TONY awards (including Best Play and Best Direction of a Play), Fat Ham is a comic tragedy, and a compelling examination of love and loss, pain and joy.

Originally co-produced off-Broadway by The Public Theater and National Black Theatre, this production runs in the Swan Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon between 15 August – 13 September.  Original Direction by Saheem Ali, directed for the Swan Theatre by Sideeq Heard.

Juicy is a queer college kid from the American South, already grappling with some serious questions of identity.  His uncle, Rev, has just married his mother, when the ghost of his father shows up at a family barbecue, claiming that Rev had him killed, and demanding that Juicy avenge his murder.  Reminiscent of Shakespeare’s Hamlet, the story may be 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 in service of his own liberation.

Olisa Odele makes his RSC debut to play Juicy.  Olisa is best known for his breakout role of Ola in Michaela Coel’s Chewing Gum, and for playing the role of Yemi in all three series of Big Boys, Channel 4’s coming-of-age drama.  His other TV work includes Russell T Davies’ It’s a Sin; Am I Being Unreasonable?; Scarborough and My Parents are Aliens. Theatre work includes: The Hot Wing King (National Theatre); Crongton Knights (UK tour) and Porgy and Bess (Savoy Theatre).

Also making their RSC debuts are Andi Osho and Sule Rimi. Andi plays Juicy’s mother, Tedra; and Sule plays the dual role of Juicy’s father, Pap, and uncle, Rev.