Peter Fernandes rehearses a scene in Fat Ham,Dahlia Katz/Berkeley Street Theatre
“Juicy is thicc,” writes playwright James Ijames in the introduction to his Pulitzer-winning play Fat Ham. “Twenty to twenty-one, Black. He’s beautiful. He is lonely. He is smart. A kind of Hamlet.”
“A kind of Hamlet,” indeed. Squint a little, and Fat Ham might look like a modern-day retelling of Shakespeare’s opus: During a cookout, Juicy, a queer Black man, is visited by the ghost of his father, who demands that Juicy investigate and avenge his murder. Chaos, of course, ensues.
But Fat Ham isn’t a one-for-one adaptation, insists the team behind its Canadian premiere. Award-winning director Philip Akin helms the production, while actor Peter Fernandes – who’s had a busy few years with memorable roles in Fifteen Dogs, The Master Plan and One Man, Two Guvnors – plays Juicy. (Fernandes also served as the assistant illusions designer for Fat Ham on Broadway in 2023.)
Aisling Murphy spoke with Akin and Fernandes in-person at Canadian Stage before Fat Ham begins previews at the Berkeley Street Theatre on Feb. 15.
In its review of Fat Ham on Broadway, The Guardian posited that the play is neither a sequel to Hamlet nor “Hamlet with Black people.” What is it, then, in your opinion?
Peter Fernandes: Hamlet has entered all of our consciences – it’s affected a lot of theatre artists. Fat Ham is how the idea of Hamlet resonated with James Ijames. It’s about the parts of that story that resonated in his body, and with his life experience, and what he took away from it.
I’m not playing Hamlet. I’m Juicy. I’m a kind of Hamlet, and I think that’s a beautiful thing. We get to witness how the story of Hamlet reverberates in somebody else.
Philip Akin: There’s something about American playwrights taking historical figures, or older stories, and using that as a launch pad. Fat Ham takes off from Shakespeare’s archetypes and creates a new story with more layers.
Peter, you’ve never played Hamlet before. Has this process challenged any beliefs you had about either the character or the play prior to doing this show?
Fernandes: For most of my career I thought I would never play a Hamlet. There was a lot of resistance to my existence in classical text. I remember someone telling me I wouldn’t have the stamina or the dexterity to do classical work at one point in my career. There’s always been resistance, a sort of contention.
Fat Ham provided me the opportunity to say, “I can engage with this.”
It’s an interesting time, Philip, to be shepherding an American play toward a Canadian audience.
Akin: Well, yes, but any time a show is moved out of its native culture and moved to another, there will be dissonance. A lot of American plays won’t work in Canada – we don’t have the background to understand them. A lot of British plays won’t translate here – they’re just a bunch of funny accents without the connotative beauty around them. Some things just don’t translate.
But Ijames has put this wonderful Black construct on top of Hamlet. There are some tough things that happen in this play, and it will be interesting to see how they fit into the current social agenda. But, then again, all theatre should be confrontational – it should soothe you, it should mess with you, it should challenge you.
Fat Ham is billed as a comedy. Hamlet is a decidedly unfunny play. Where do the laughs come from?
Fernandes: They come from great writing. The laughs come from a really true place – the people in the play, sure, are in situations that might make the audience laugh. But these folks are going through something – there’s real turmoil, too. It’s real for them, which means it’s real for us.
Philip, it’s been 50 years since you graduated in the inaugural class of Toronto Metropolitan University’s theatre school and jump-started your career at the Shaw Festival. Is there a belief you have about theatre that’s the same now as it was 50 years ago?
Akin: I felt like an outsider 50 years ago. I don’t think I can say I’m an outsider now – I have the awards, and all of that – but I think I’m an outsider in the way I commit to hyper-analysis. I’m not afraid of controversy. I’m not afraid of being honest and truthful and speaking my mind. At 25, you can be dismissed by your peers and it bothers you. At 75, I can be dismissed and not care, because the truth of what I do and what I believe is in me, and not contingent on what somebody says about me.
Peter, you’ve mentioned in recent interviews how much you’ve been looking forward to working on this play with Philip. How’s it been in the rehearsal hall?
Fernandes: The last time we worked together in this capacity was Passing Strange, which was this pivotal point in my career.
To come back and reconnect with someone who’s a huge mentor – not only to me, but to everybody in this show – has created a space where we are allowed to unapologetically take space and collaborate. It’s been joyous, and – I mean this in a very positive way – it’s been demanding.
This interview has been edited and condensed.
