FAT HAM

FAT HAM co-produced w/ Richmond Triangle Players

April 16 - 19, 2025

Firehouse Theatre and Richmond Triangle Players are proud to announce that James Ijames’ hilarious take on Shakespeare’s “Hamlet” will play five performances at the Firehouse, April 16 – 19. 2025.

In his Pulitzer Prize-winning “Fat Ham”, playwright James Ijames reinvents Shakespeare’s masterful drama as a delectable comic tragedy. Juicy is a queer, Southern college kid, already grappling with some serious questions of identity, when the ghost of his father shows up in their backyard, demanding that Juicy avenge his murder. It feels like a familiar story to Juicy, well-versed in Hamlet’s woes. 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. From an uproarious family barbecue emerges a compelling examination of love and loss, pain and joy.

This special engagement is being produced with the full and material support of Virginia Repertory Theatre, in the spirit of community healing and collaboration, and as a demonstration of local arts organizations supporting one another through challenging circumstances.

*ALL SHOW DATES SOLD OUT*

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The john mitchell jr. project

The Firehouse Theatre, in collaboration with the Virginia Museum of History and Culture and the Richmond Planet Foundation, has commissioned playwright Kristen Adele Calhoun to dramatize the life and times of John Mitchell Jr., the “fighting editor” of The Richmond Planet Newspaper. The John Mitchell Jr. Project serves as a pilot for ongoing partnership between Firehouse Theatre and the Virginia Museum of History and Culture to dramatize untold stories from Virginia's history. Project strategy and marketing will be provided by BROWNBAYLOR™.