There are two plays on now in Providence that start with a work of Shakespeare and then take it in a new direction: “Fat Ham” at the Wilbury Theatre Group, and “La Tempestad — The Tempest” at Trinity Rep.
Artscape producer James Baumgartner spoke with the plays’ directors for this week’s show.
“La Tempestad — The Tempest” at Trinity Rep.
“La Tempestad — The Tempest” is a bilingual version of one of Shakespeare’s final plays. The script alternates between the original Elizabethan English and a translation in contemporary Spanish, and there are projected subtitles so the audience can follow along in both languages. Christie Vela is the play’s director.
James Baumgartner: “ The Tempest” is one of Shakespeare’s last plays. It’s known as being kind of a light, airy work. I looked at the program notes for the production, and they say that it’s “deconstructing colonialist narratives.” That sounds a little heavier. How do you explain that? What do you mean by that?
Christie Vela: Well, I mean, all of those themes, the themes of colonialism and imperialism and all that stuff, it’s already in “ The Tempest” in the original one, those things were happening already at the same time that Shakespeare was alive. I think of Shakespeare as a populist playwright, really wanted to keep the doors of the theater open, and was using current events, right, as the basis for his stories. So all of those things are already there. What we’re doing is we are lifting them up to focus on what happened in the Americas. And it is heavy, but it’s also full of joy and a celebration of the Latin American community in the United States.
Baumgartner: Why produce “La Tempestad” right now?
Vela: Ah, right. You know, I’ve been on board with this project for about a year, and it was before all of the stuff that’s happening in the world right now was happening. And as we got closer and closer to starting production, it became really important to me to really do a good job on this play because of morale, because people are afraid. Because people are worried about the lives that they’ve built, the lives that they have, the community that they have helped to build up and make prosperous. About all of that ending. And I really felt like it was a way to, and I’m sure Trinity feels the same way, that this is a way to again, highlight, the importance of community and the importance of recognizing that there are folks in this country who have been in this country for a long, long, long, long time. And what’s happening is really, really unfair.
Baumgartner: What are we going to see on stage when we come to a performance?
Vela: It is a visual feast. I’m a huge fan of sixties sci-fi, and I remember sitting at home and watching an old Vincent Price movie, still mulling over in my head, “What am I gonna do with ‘The Tempest’? What am I gonna do?” And this movie came on called “War Gods of the Deep,” and – oh, this is so ridiculous. Should I even be talking about this?
Baumgartner: Please, please do.
Vela: So I was sitting around, mulling about how I was going to stage “The Tempest.” What were we gonna do visually? What was it gonna look like? And this movie came on TV called “War Gods of the Deep” with Vincent Price, and being as I’m a huge sixties sci-fi nerd, I don’t know, something sparked. And I immediately called Dahlia Al-Habieli, who is my scenic designer, and said, “Hey, go with me here for two seconds. I want you to go watch this movie called “War Gods of the Deep.’” And so she did, and then she came back and said, “Let’s watch some of these OG “Star Trek” films,” or episodes. And so the set and the sound and the lights are kind of this wonderful amalgamation of popular American vintage sci-fi and Latin music, and incredible sumptuous lights and gorgeous costumes.
You can see “La Tempestad — The Tempest” at Trinity Rep now through April 27.
“Fat Ham” at the Wilbury Theatre Group
What if “Hamlet” was a little less sad and tragic and it took place at a Black Southern cookout instead of a dreary Danish castle? That’s one of the ideas behind “Fat Ham,” the Pulitzer prize-winning play that’s on now at the Wilbury Theatre Group. The director is Don Mays.
Baumgartner: “Fat Ham” feels definitely less melancholy than “Hamlet.” I would say it’s really more of a comedy than a tragedy.
Don Mays: Oh, absolutely. It is not at all a tragedy. And the comedic writing, the writing is so brilliant, that the comedy comes through, but still allows you to kind of see the parallels with “Hamlet.” At the end, it’s not a tragic end, as “Hamlet” is. And it’s just a very lively piece, very realistic characters – kind of exaggerated realistic characters I should say. But anyone who’s ever gone to a Black family cookout, knows all of the characters in this play, knows them very well.
Baumgartner: But you don’t have to have experienced a Black family cookout to, to enjoy this, as well. Just like you don’t have to have been in 15th-century Denmark as well, right?
Mays: Absolutely. Yeah. I mean, the characters are lively and believable, and it is fun going on this journey with them.
Baumgartner: Why produce “Fat Ham” right now?
Mays: It is a story that explores, LGBTQ lifestyles, within the Black family, within the popular culture and the barriers and challenges that exist for the LGBT community today as it has in the past. And it’s particularly a thing in Black families, especially Southern Black families, where, kind of coming out and expressing one, or living one’s life as a queer person is a big challenge.
Baumgartner: “Hamlet” is full of soliloquies, the “to be or not to be” one being the most famous, of course. I didn’t see that one in particular in “Fat Ham” until a day later. I thought, well, wait, wait a second. Maybe I did see that.
Mays: Yeah, the soliloquy doesn’t exist, but his whole, the whole journey of the, actually all of the characters, it’s a matter of “to be or not to be,” whether they can be themselves or, or not be themselves, or exist in the world as themselves and understand what it is to be, to exist in that culture, as a, especially as a Black queer man, you know.
Baumgartner: We often place Shakespeare on a pedestal, right? Carved in stone. We think of these things as the highest of high culture in a lot of ways. But Shakespeare at its time was also low culture. There was a lot of bawdy, ribald writing in his [plays]. One thing I really enjoyed about “Fat Ham” is that we see that ribaldry in the contemporary [setting] as well.
Mays: Absolutely. Yeah. James Ijames, the writer, did such a fantastic job of making the language, using contemporary language to convey a very similar message or a parallel message in this piece. To say there are elements that are bawdy is an understatement. It is a big, there’s some very big comedy elements to it, some serious and moving poignant elements as well. But the overarching storytelling allows one to kind of really sit back and enjoy and hear what’s going on and be moved by the subplots. So, yeah, it’s, I mean, it’s not, it’s not Elizabethan iambic pentameter, but it is an extremely well written script.
Baumgartner: Don Mays, thank you so much for talking with me about “Fat Ham.”
Mays: Thank you, James. I appreciate it. And hope folks can come out to check it out before we close.
You can see “Fat Ham” at the Wilbury Theatre Group now through April 13.
