Fat Ham and the Queer Renaissance of Shakespeare - Part 1
- Lara Toner Haddock
- Jun 19
- 2 min read
James Ijames’s Pulitzer-winning play Fat Ham offers a fresh look at Shakespeare’s most famous tragedy, reconceptualizing Hamlet at a present-day barbecue of a Black southern family and exploring themes of inherited trauma, queer resilience, and Black joy. We’re excited to share our production with you at Austin Playhouse (tickets available here)! In the meantime, though, why not whet your palate with some of these other queer Shakespeare book adaptations? Our friends at Black Pearl Books, Austin’s very own Black-owned indie bookstore, are ready to get these titles for you as you dive into mad scientists, climate change horror, contemporary romance, young adult thrillers, and more, with these recommendations curated by Fat Ham dramaturg Jennifer Sturley.
Hamlet
We’re starting with a very different take on Shakespeare’s classic from Ijames’s approach: Lyndsey Faye’s “lush, magical, queer, and feminist take on Hamlet in modern-day New York City” is filled with heart-wrenching prose and equal parts hope and anguish. Read if you need to feel understood through a depressive episode, if you need to believe in love again, or if you like Benjamin Alire Sáenz or Emily M. Danforth.
Hamlet
Yes, here’s another Hamlet, to stay on theme! Marketed as a “queer sci-fi retelling of Shakespeare's Hamlet as a locked-room thriller,” this dynamic and timely mystery novel features artificial intelligence and questions of personhood, along with all the original themes of mortality, mental illness, surveillance, indecision, and trust. Read if you like books about mad scientists, if you play the video game Portal and have a crush on GLaDOS, and if you’re comfortable with depictions of gore and self-harm.
Macbeth
A gorgeous, dark young adult reimagining of “the Scottish play” set in a contemporary boarding school, this gripping and fast-paced novel engages with mental illness, disability, and how the stress and pressure that teens today are under might mirror the ambition of thanes from long ago. Read if you like Claire LeGrand, Anna-Marie McLemore, and Ouija board seances in your living room.
King Lear
Marketed as “a speculative reimagining of King Lear, centering three sisters navigating queer love and loss in a drowning world,” this novel by the author of absolute stunner Our Wives Under the Sea is a lush, grief-filled literary horror. Read if you watch Succession, if you like character studies more than plot, or if you’re a fan of Emily St. John Mandel.
Bonus recommendation:
Hamlet
Get your own copy of the play to read along with us! The Pulitzer Prize-winner turns the classic tragedy of Hamlet into an irreverent comedy set in the American South. Fat Ham follows Juicy, a queer, Black college student who, instead of brooding over revenge, contemplates his place in the world during a family barbecue. Fat Ham is haunting and hilarious - exploring identity, joy, and dealing with family drama.
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