The reviews are in for HAM, Hotter Project’s vegan rewrite of Hamlet, which has come to Soho Theatre from this summer’s Edinburgh Fringe. Mary Higgins plays a Hamlet in mourning for a slaughtered pig and Ell Potter his sausage-loving mother Gertrude, in an hour directed by Ursula Martinez. The London critics agree that it is very funny and that the two performers hold the room; where they part company is over the message, with the three five-star notices delighted by the way it folds the campaigning into the comedy, while BroadwayWorld and The Live Review wish the show either trusted its argument more or leaned on its statistics less.
The verdict: six reviews of the London run so far. Five carry a rating: three five-star notices, one four-star and one three-star, an average of 4.4 out of 5, while British Theatre Guide gives no star score. Every critic enjoys the comedy and the double act of Mary Higgins and Ell Potter; the disagreement is over how comfortably the campaigning sits inside the jokes.
What are critics saying about HAM?
All That Dazzles
"As funny as it is haunting, art meets activism in this remarkable vegan retelling of Hamlet that’s true make-a-difference theatre"
Reviewer: Seth Wilby
Seth Wilby is the most evangelical of the critics. He finds the five-act structure builds steadily towards catharsis, and argues that the show turns shame into hope rather than lecturing its audience.
"It’s rare for a piece of theatre to affect what you have for dinner that evening."
He credits Ursula Martinez’s direction, with its live video and Tom Foskett-Barnes’s score, for sharpening the tension between scenes, and names Potter’s Gertrude as the source of many of the biggest laughs.
West End Best Friend
Reviewer: Oli Burgin
Oli Burgin admires the way the piece keeps the five-act shape of Shakespeare’s tragedy while turning it into a domestic comedy about meat, with only Gertrude and Hamlet on stage.
"This hour long show from Fringe veterans Ell Potter and Mary Higgins gloriously succeeds where many have failed"
He finds Rūta Irbīte’s abattoir-like design and David Doyle’s lighting unsettling in the right way, and thinks the company judge exactly when to break the tension with a laugh.
Theatre and Tonic
Reviewer: Brad
Brad’s short notice is an unqualified rave for the two performers, whose chemistry and stagecraft he feels carry every moment.
"They tell us early on that no one wants another Hamlet but I’d argue we need this one."
He likes the way the story of Hamlet is threaded through the pair’s own account of making the show, and its point that facts and footage alone rarely change anyone’s mind.
The Live Review
Reviewer: Sophie Clark
Sophie Clark enjoys the fourth-wall-breaking interludes and the balance the show strikes between Hamlet’s militant moralism and Gertrude’s pragmatism.
"HAM is a sometimes very funny, sometimes extremely bleak exploration of veganism, climate change, collective responsibility, and individual choices."
She could have done without the slideshows and statistics, and wishes it had more to say about the outsized impact of the very rich, but still expects it to become a cult favourite.
BroadwayWorld
Reviewer: Clementine Scott
Clementine Scott thinks the conceit works better than its premise suggests, with Gertrude’s appetite for food standing in neatly for her appetites in the original play.
"Wacky as it sounds on paper, this all works rather better than one would think"
Her reservation is that the show qualifies its own arguments so often that its politics lose their force, although she is warm about the pair’s obvious love of making theatre.
British Theatre Guide
Reviewer: Keith Mckenna
Keith Mckenna describes a surreal and participatory evening, from an audience volunteer drafted into a bondage scene to slaughterhouse footage that briefly silences the room.
"Hilarious verbal and physical jokes lead the show with modifications of Shakespeare’s text and naked scenes"
He thinks the wild comedy grabs the audience, but wonders whether the show lacks the confidence to build itself around the seriousness of its subject.
Production photographs by Jonny Ruff.
For the story so far, see our earlier pieces on the transfer of HAM to Soho Theatre and the first production photographs. For more from the critics, read our roundups of What the Animals Say at the Finborough Theatre and De Profundis at the Coronet Theatre.
HAM runs at Soho Theatre Upstairs, 21 Dean Street, until Saturday 31 October 2026, following its press performance on Friday 2 October. The show runs for about an hour.
