Yellow is a sort of sequel to Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night, set in modern times, using mostly modern language, which asks ‘what might happen next’ to Malvolio.
The premise is that this is ‘Shakespeare meets The West Wing’, or ‘Shakespeare meets The Thick of It‘, and Malvolio used to be some sort of SPAD, as far as we can gather. Various of the other characters are either lawyers, or in politics – or both, and Olivia, never seen, is the Minister for the Environment.
We begin with Rosie Arden coming to meet Tony Merchant at the law firm of Hathaway’s. Tony is an old school solicitor, lifted right out of the 1970s. He drinks in the office. He’s loud. He’s a total HR nightmare. Although the chances that his firm has an HR department is minimal.
Doing much of the actual work in the office are Ben and Trixie, who don’t have a great deal to do in the narrative, other than to provide the occasional pithy nugget of wisdom.
Despite having a cast of six, this is really a two-hander in disguise, with most of the action passing in one very long scene between Rosie, and yellow-tie wearing Malvolio, ‘but call him Mal’. They discuss who they are, and what they want, and, very obliquely, the incident that led to Mal having to leave his political job.
This scene is very long, and because of that, it drags somewhat. It’s also unclear a lot of the time as to what is going on, because much of the back story is not explained in enough detail. This isn’t even a case of needing to understand the plot of the Shakespearean original – knowing that story won’t help you here with the translation to politics and the law that possibly hasn’t been thought through enough.
There needed to be much more backstory introduced. It’s unclear whether there was such background covered in a longer version of the play, because there seems to be so much missing here which might have explained the motivations of almost everyone, including Mal. This may well be the case where a 90 minute running time, or even a traditional two act play, might be more suitable for the story being told. There also isn’t enough of the ‘walk and talk’ common to both The West Wing and The Thick of It, and not enough humour to be playing homage to Iannucci’s portrayal of the corridors of power.
What is good are the performances, by the actors playing Mal, Rosie and Tony especially. The use of Coldplay’s ‘Yellow’, also helps to set the mood nicely. Finally, the set is very well conceived and put together, suggesting a fully-realised office. Given the short change over time in this Fringe venue, this is particularly impressive.
Yellow is a good idea, but the script needs more development, and each character’s story needs to be thought through, and fully realised. The plotline of investigating a financial abuse case also needs to be developed more fully, and woven into the narrative more completely.
A bold attempt, and it does rehabilitate the character of Malvolio somewhat.
Yellow continues at The Space at Niddry Street at 12:15 daily until August 23. Their Instagram is here.
