Yellowfin – Comedy that’s in tuna with modern times

It is quite wonderful that London theatre is coming out of lockdown with so many new plays, writes Christopher Walker.

Writers also show a renewed determination that they should be challenging intelligent works that make you think.

The latest offering from Southwark Playhouse, Yellowfin does just that.

Yellowfin is the latest play by fringe playwright Marek Horn. It speculates on a nightmare future where we have lost all the fish in the world’s oceans.

The central characters ostensibly fight over a tin of tuna, one of the last four remaining on the planet.

In reality their conflict is one between human greed and indifference on the one side, and the very survival of our environment on the other.

Yellowfin’s ecological theme is very topical. As the protestors chant – “there is no Planet B.”

The World Economic Forum gives us a frightening catalogue of the damage we are doing to our earth.

Since 1970, we have destroyed 32 per cent of the world’s forest area and 85 per cent of its wetlands.

Some 50 per   cent of the   world’s coral reef systems have disappeared and there has been, on average, a 60 per cent decline in vertebrate species.

This is corroborated by research by WWF, which shows that the global population of mammals, birds, fish, amphibians, and reptiles has fallen by an average of 68 per cent since 1970.

Given this nightmarish extinction at the play’s core, it may surprise you to learn that Yellowfin is written as a comedy.

Albeit an awkward   comedy. Some laugh uproariously, while others shift in their seats with discomfort. The director Ed Madden said the piece is “more interested in asking questions than providing answers.”

The drama is set at a supposed future US Senate enquiry into the disappearance of the fish and the activities of a contraband tuna tin smuggler, Calantini.

He is played cheekily by Joshua James, cleverly channelling the irreverence of Facebook tycoon Mark Zuckerberg before congressional committees. In blue jeans and trainers, he makes it quite clear he doesn’t want to be there, but can’t resist grabbing the mike.

This setting by the author makes the play essentially a courtroom drama.

If you find that boring, you won’t like this.

While Anisha Fields’ staging with three senators on one side and Calantini on the other, with the audience divided in two around them, evokes Wimbledon’s centre court.

This is awkward for the audience in a tight space, risking “Wimbledon-neck” as you look back and forth from Calantini to the senators.

Marek Horn captures the pompous congressional language perfectly. The senators endlessly reciting “let the record show” and the lead senator, Marianne, spouting mouthfuls like “please confirm that you appreciate the severity of our undertaking here today.”

I would like to see Horn write more on US politics.

Marianne’s character is described as “scary, authoritative and about   60.”

She is played masterfully by Nancy Crane, in a thinly veiled portrayal of her namesake, Nancy Pelosi, the current leader of the US House of Representatives.

She has a lot of other famous US politicians rolled in there too, from Hilary Clinton to current vice-president Pamela Harris.

Up on the Senate panel with Marianne are two other senators who are likewise familiar to anyone who follows US politics.

Stephen, younger than Marianne, and somewhat scheming, is played by Beruce Khan.

The real show-stealer is Nicholas Day as Roy, an older senator “in his 80s, a drowsy and avuncular presence.”

There are plenty of language gags in the play, making fun of Americans for a British audience, and a lot of these are in Nicholas Day’s capable hands.

Overall, this was a very interesting piece, though I must confess it gave me nightmares. Maybe Horn would be glad.

Go to https://southwarkplayhouse.savoysystems.co.uk

Pictured: Joshua James in Yellowfin. Picture: Helen Maybanks