HAM ★★ Soho Theatre | Sep 29 - Oct 31, 2026


Ham is a Fringe show that is a take-off on Hamlet, but here the central issue is Hamlet’s decision to be vegan while his mother, Gertrude, continues to enjoy her sausages. This situation is explained to us by the show’s co-creators, Mary Higgins, apparently a real-life vegan who plays Hamlet, and Ell Potter, seemingly a real-life carnivore who plays Gertrude. The production is structured around the five acts of Hamlet, taking dialogue from Shakespeare and re-contextualising it around the new premise. The two cast members manage to draw considerable humour from this exercise, but by the time we reach the play-within-a-play, there may simply be too many levels of reality for the audience to process. We have Mary and Ell as characters putting on a version of Hamlet that now contains another play, and matters become even more mind-boggling when that play, with its bizarre sexual domination premise, turns into an audience participation exercise. It all begins to feel rather awkward and almost like filler. Similarly, the memorial for the cat named Ophelia, while making the point that we treat some animals very differently from others, feels more like a separate skit than an integral part of the show. All the while, we are bombarded with videos and facts about meat-eating as a major contributor to climate change, along with warnings about the imminent destruction of the planet. This messaging is at its most forceful in the “interval”, when we are again shown the videos of the inhumane treatment of pigs raised for food that were played before the show. It all does seem like overkill. That said, there is an apparent attempt to temper the argument with Ell’s spirited defence of the pleasures of being a carnivore. However, this is a show that is not really interested in presenting a balanced point of view. The message is clear. Meat-eating, along with other human behaviours such as continuing to have too many children, air travel and automobile use, is contributing to the destruction of the planet. While this dark reality is served up with some funny moments and gratuitous nudity, the moral is delivered with an earnestness that becomes as overwhelming as the music, which is played at an ear-splitting volume before and during the show. Ham is making an important point, but in the end the Hamlet wrappings and humour do not sufficiently disguise the finger-wagging, and it all becomes a little hard to swallow. Well-executed and well-meaning, Ham ultimately comes off as a didactic jumble within some amusing sketch comedy.

Rated: ★★

Reviewed by J.C.
Image: Johnny Ruff

When, Where, Getting there:

Map & Location: 21 Dean St, London W1D 3NE, UK

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