Marshall Mabry IV (they/them) has many great takeaways from the stage play, Fat Ham. But there is one—in particular—that stands out for them most and it’s quite simple. “If you’re lucky enough to live, you’re going to grieve,” they said. “If you’re lucky enough to love, you’re going to grieve the loss of that love.”
Inspired by the Shakespeare classic, Hamlet, Fat Ham is the story of a family grappling with loss, cycles, and family secrets—many of them coming to light during a picnic gathering. During the gathering, Juicy, played by Mabry, is visited by the ghost of their father, and instructed to avenge their untimely murder.
“This experience has been crazy. Absolutely insane. It is the biggest dream come true it could be,” they said. “It’s a master work and a role that I could spend, and probably will spend many years trying to get right. This experience has changed my life.”
A lover of Shakesperean productions, Mabry read the script for Fat Ham, a few years ago — when they were 19. Immediately they were moved.
“I got to audition for it when they were doing it Off-Broadway. It sent chills through my body. I remember feeling like I have felt so seen by text; by like the words on the page,” they said. “The thing that we can all relate to is intrinsically human about this centuries-old tragic hero is that he’s in the throes of grief.
There are no words for how brilliant this play is on the page and the way [James Ijames] is recontextualizing.”
Take for example, Opal. Inspired by the Ophelia character in Hamlet, Opal is struggling
to come to grips with the weight of a grief of her own.
“She has this thing where she talks about sitting on the toilet and imagining the flush will suck her away,” explains Mabry. “The idea that Ophelia’s dress represented how heavy she was in her grief. That’s beautiful.”
The role of Juicy in this production is not only special to Mabry because of their
love for what’s on the page, but also what it means for them professionally and personally. It marks a return to the Alliance Theatre.
A native of the metro Atlanta area, Mabry was raised in South Fulton. A preacher’s kid — their father is a pastor and their mother a life coach — they had no desire to be in a pulpit but understood the power of the stage. “I started at the Alliance with the teen ensemble. I was the youngest in my class and spent like three years in the teen ensemble. I saw every show for those three years and then I did the Collision Project. And one of my first performances was in the Hertz,” they said. “The Hertz is a true place of sanctuary for me. It is where the Alliance lives its mission of expanding hearts and minds on and off the stage.”
In a time when Black masculinity doesn’t get to have the space needed to feel, to be soft, and trapped by binary constructs, Fat Ham seeks to make softness and vibrancy okay, Mabry believes.
“This story looks like me. You know? Fat. Black. Queer. Empathetic. Soft. We don’t understand that human beings are meant to feel. It is so okay to be soft. And it is so okay for people to be vibrant,” he said. “That’s just what they are; what we are. Some people just feel real hard,” they said. “And that’s okay. This story reclaims some of that. It’s just so powerful.”
This show, they said, is about their Black softness and about their Black queerness. “Which is something people told me would halt everything in my career. To hold this story right now in a time where Black men’s softness can get them killed, like O’Shea Sibley—to be holding this story right now. I’m giving it everything I have,” they added. “We have a really beautiful opportunity to inspire divinity, and to inspire change in people’s lives at a time when they really, really need it. So, this opportunity, I take it seriously. Getting to tell this story in the first building where I ever got to work on Shakespeare. There are no words. There are absolutely no words.”
If it is unclear, Mabry is grateful. As a matter of fact, grateful may not be strong enough a word to capture what this moment is for them.
“Like a gift from above. Absolutely! I’m having the time of my life. The feelings are real big, but I’m having the time of my life,” they said. “This role is the most anyone has ever asked of me in a show, and it is my honor and absolute pleasure to give it everything I got.”
