James Ijames’ Pulitzer prize-winning play, Fat Ham, will make its European premiere at the RSC’s Swan Theatre from 15th August to 13th September 2025. The show is a queer comic tragedy that explores love and loss, pain and joy.
“Uninvited guests are one thing. Uninvited ghosts are quite another. 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. The story is familiar, but 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.”
The premiere was announced by co-Artistic Directors, Daniel Evans and Tamara Harvey in the release of the RSC’s Summer 2025 season.
Tamara Harvey and Daniel Evans said: “Over the last twelve months, our guiding principle as Co-Artistic Directors has been to seek out the most exciting directors, writers and actors working in the UK and internationally, and ask them which stories they feel a passionate desire to tell.
“Our 2025/26 season will bring together an international roster of creative talent, where the works of William Shakespeare stand shoulder to shoulder with some of the most compelling voices in modern playwriting, from Olivier Award-winning playwright Laura Wade to the late, great Sarah Kane and the Pulitzer Prize-winning James Ijames.”
Winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, Fat Ham is written by the award-winning playwright James Ijames, originally co-produced off-Broadway by The Public Theater and National Black Theatre. Original direction by Saheem Ali, directed for the Swan Theatre by Sideeq Heard.
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