DTC takes its turn to serve some ‘Fat Ham’ in Dallas

RICH LOPEZ | Staff writer
Rich@DallasVoice.com

To slay or not to slay — That may be the question Juicy asks in Fat Ham. The regional premiere of the Pulitzer Prize-winning play by James Ijames opened at Stage West in association with Dallas Theater Center last August. Now on Friday, DTC gets its turn to present the play at the Kalita Humphreys Theater where the show will run through Feb. 8.

In Fat Ham, Ijames’ story puts a new spin on Shakespeare’s Hamlet that’s Black and queer and centers on a character named Juicy.

But it also flips the script.

“Juicy’s trying really hard to break those family curses here,” lead actor Tyler Lewis (they/them) said about their role ahead of Friday’s opening night.

In Fat Ham, Juicy’s navigating life as a queer Black man in his Deep South family. And his family is just the worst: His mother marries his uncle; his dead father haunts him, and Juicy is just trying to be fabulous.

And for his own sake and joy, Juicy may just have to defy his father’s demands for revenge.
Lewis said that while there is some drama here, don’t expect the heaviness of Shakespeare’s actual Hamlet.

“It’s both a comedy and drama,” they said. “Since day one, I keep breaking character because it’s just so hilarious.”

Lewis also relates to the character — almost, perhaps, a little too much. Character and actor, as Lewis describes them, could almost be mirror images of each other. This helps put the actor at ease in embodying the character.

“Juicy’s story parallels my life,” Lewis said. “He is a plus-sized queer person from the South. He’s from a small town, as am I. He grew up different and misunderstood, just like I did,” they said. “The only difference is that he is very dark and somber, which is the opposite of me. I’m usually very jovial and happy.”

As the cast heads into these Dallas performances, actor Zachary J. Willis (he/him), who reprises his role as Tio, made his debut at Stage West at last summer’s regional premiere. But now, as a member of DTC’s Brierly Resident Acting Company, he is back on home turf. That adds a certain comfort as he revisits his character.

“Coming back to him now feels different in a good way. I leaned into his humor and energy. I’m not just relying on the jokes,” Willis said. “I’m asking why he uses uncomfortable or sexual humor to defuse the tensions of family expectations, identity, the inheritance they’ve been handed and the choices they have to make because of it.

“Tio really wants to help, he just doesn’t always have the language.”

Juicy’s father demands anger and violence from his son, but Juicy sees things differently. Lewis related to that.

And like Juicy, Lewis is trying to break their own cycles. With their own story growing up country, they had expectations thrust upon them.

“We were all expected to do sports, and I grew up raising pigs and did FFA (Future Farmers of America) and the like. But that just wasn’t my thing,” they said. “All the men are expected to take over, and the focus was on that.”

Lewis continued, “Juicy and I grew up watching what not to be, even though they were deciding who I will be. I aspired to be something different, so I began making an active decision to follow my own dreams and aspirations, regardless and in spite of what’s expected.”

In short, that’s the lesson Fat Ham offers.

So, with such similar and parallel lives, would Lewis and Juicy be besties?

“I mean, yes and no,” Lewis said with a laugh. “I’m a person who’s drawn to people who need people. They may be broken down or beat up, and I get pulled into that, wanting to be positive. But then, with Juicy, I know I’d also have to be like ‘Girl, get up!’”

Tio has his own issues as Willis points out. While Tio is in Juicy’s orbit, the character does have a depth that Willis has mined. On stage, Tio chases fame, particularly convinced he could kill it on OnlyFans. Willis, though, sees something more in his character.

“Tio’s chase might seem funny or easy to brush off, but underneath is curiosity, autonomy and real freedom. His interest in something like OnlyFans is less about fame and more about choosing pleasure,” Willis explains.

“At the core of it, Tio just wants freedom, and he’s working on himself and trying to open things up for the people around him, too.”

In 2024, Willis starred in DTC’s world premiere of I Am Delivered’T, another play focused, much like Fat Ham, intensely on the Black queer experience. The two are distinctly different, but Willis has explored the significance of such stories onstage.

“Every character has their own crayon box. Having a broad range and different textures is what makes acting exciting for me,” Willis said. “When I look at characters like Pickles in I Am Delivered’T and Tio in Fat Ham, I see a real connection in how Black and queer stories show up onstage, often using humor to usher in truth.”

He continued, “Often, the queer characters I play are less about how they see themselves and more about how the world of the story sees them and how they deal with those perceptions.

“I’m not even sure Tio would identify himself as queer, but in this play, queerness is something many of the characters are discovering as freedom. It is less about labels and more about learning how to move toward honesty, pleasure and choice.”

Lewis says it’s important to remember that these are Black stories first.

“They are just all from a queer lens, and you don’t see that often at the theater forefront,” they said. “Having these stories is so important to show we exist. I’m an example of it. It’s more important now to have these stories onstage that strike back at those against us.”

Lewis hasn’t just found a safe space in Juicy, but also in the theater’s cast and crew. Lewis said they’ve struggled to find Black forward shows. Here, they are loving that the entire cast and crew are Black — or as they describe it, “This is a Black-ass show.”

They continued, “That’s so crucial in telling Black stories, but also, it feels like being at home. We all get each other; we speak the same language and [director] vickie washington has cultivated a great environment and our dramaturg Harold Steward has done fantastic work.

“It’s amazing to be surrounded by all this Black excellence.”

For tickets, visit DallasTheaterCenter.org. Excerpts of this story were published previously.

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