Reviews

It is easy to see why. Yellowman is a brilliant piece of drama. The play tells the story of Eugene and Alma, two kids growing up in South Carolina in the late 1960s. They meet at school, become friends and fall in love. But this is no simple love story. The youngsters’ lives are shaped, and ultimately wrecked, by colour prejudice and social division within the black community of their town.

Andi Osho and Anthony Ekundayo

Eugene is light skinned and lives in a superior part of town. His father has dropped the “Geechie” accent of the former African slave communities and now thinks himself a cut above. Alma is dark-skinned, with a mother drunk on gin and determined that her daughter shouldn’t rise above her social position. Alma is constantly reminded that she is fat, black and ugly and that she should stick to her own and not get involved with “high yella” Eugene.

As the couple grow up the innocent equality of the playground, where everyone plays together regardless of skin colour, is replaced by the discriminations of adulthood. The racial tensions within this black community are every bit as nasty as between black and white in the American south. The hatred and the heat create a cauldron of passions that can only result in tragedy. 

The play is presented mostly as a series of monologues, alternating between the two characters sitting on either side of the stage. Only very occasionally do they share the same space or speak directly to each other and even then their eyes never meet. The dramatic effect is simple and effective.

Eugene and Alma

Andi Osho as Alma and Anthony Ekundayo as Eugene are superb, delivering powerful and sensitive performances that become more intense as the tensions mount. They progress from lively kids running and playing together, to worldly-wise young adults, who recognise, even though they don’t accept, the constraints put on them by custom and convention. 

But it is not just Alma and Eugene who inhabit the stage. Osho and Ekundayo also play the souls of Alma’s mother, Odelia, and Eugene’s father and mother. They act out, with relish, the confrontations between mother & daughter and father & son. It feels like a play with a bigger cast than two.

The intensity of Yellowman is maintained throughout. It runs for just under two hours without a break, but don't let that worry you. The energy in the performances and the pace at which the drama unfolds means there’s no time to look at your watch.