Fat Ham
RSC Swan Theatre
THERE have been, as you might expect, many Hamlets down the years at this theatre. From Schofield to Tennant vis Branagh and any number of young stars.
While it is tempting to say there’s never been a Hamlet quite like this, that would not be strictly true. Re-stagings, re-imaginings and re-writes abound. Shakespeare’s most introspective play has been a busy watering hole for generations, placed in fresh settings from every conceivable angle, supporting every conceivable agenda. Maybe we really have seen it all.
Fat Ham, James Ijames’s bold and brash shake-up of Shakespeare, does however bow to nobody when it comes to energy, colour and sheer wallop.
Elsinore has decamped west to a back garden barbecue patio somewhere between the Fresh Prince of Bel Air and every Bill Cosby film you’ve ever seen. Think comic TV black stereotypes and then hype them up a couple of levels beyond manic.
Hamlet, a dungaree-clad moody teen called Juicy here, is, in the hands of Olisa Odele, a lost soul filled with angst and bitterness. Pressured to follow the family blueprint and denied the chance to find freedom his is a bleak outlook.
So far so Bard-loyal but things soon start slipping off the scale.
Like most American TV comedies from which this production borrows copiously, the supporting cast offer a range of stock but madcap characters as sharp as they are consciously overplayed.
Sule Rimi, doubling as uncle and ghost, sets out full-on and never drops. Corey Montague-Sholay and Kieran Taylor-Ford vie for the role of sassy, irreverent sidekick while Andi Osho and Sandra Marvin drink deeply from the same well to bookend each other as the wild eyed, screeching, God-fearing mamma that every comedy must have.
Jasmine Elcock, following the distant steps of Ophelia, impresses throughout. Fine comic timing and, in a production where unless you keep right on the ball much will be lost to excessive blustering and pace, she’s audible and understandable where others are not.
Director Sideeq Heard oversees some fabulous moments of verbal jousting, near-the-knuckle comedy and downright slapstick.
This Hamlet features costumes that smoke, Hamlet singing Radiohead, a brilliantly executed magic trick and a monologue about sex with a gingerbread man which may well outlive the rest of the play.
The ending, in case anyone thought things could hardly get camper, defies all such doubts and brings the whole to a raucous, resounding climax of joy and brotherly love the Bard somehow neglected to include in his own version.
It’s great fun and, while its confused meandering messages may not exactly enlighten, they will certainly entertain.
Visit rsc.org.uk for performance and ticket details.
Matthew Salisbury
