Juicy’s preparations are interrupted by the arrival of that ghost, popping up out of the picnic table, who tells his son that his brother arranged his death, and urges, nay demands, that Juicy–whom he derides as “soft”-exact revenge by slaying Pap’s killer. That it does not achieve any great emotional depth or resonate in the mind after you leave the theater will not detract from the pure enjoyment the play delivers from start to finish. On its own terms, the play is an unalloyed pleasure: clever in its allusions to and occasional modest borrowings from Shakespeare’s mighty drama, frank and funny in its depiction of a family in the throes of transition, and acted with infectious exuberance. It’s best to put aside ideas of prize-worthy importance, or important-prize-worthiness. Ijames’s play and “A Strange Loop,” another recent Pulitzer Prize winner, currently on Broadway and having racked up 11 Tony nominations, may also raise audiences’ expectations: At the center of both is a young black man, overweight and gay, burdened with insecurities and doubts. ” Certainly a newly bestowed Pulitzer is a heavy crown, and the coincidental correspondences between Mr. Still, “uneasy lies the head that wears a crown,” Shakespeare wrote in “ The Public Theater, 425 Lafayette St., New York
