"Yellowman:" Color Conflict
Up Close and Personal

By Carol Chastang
SeeingBlack.com Theater and Dance Critic

Talk about "Yellowman" and Black theater! Click here.

In the stunning production of "Yellowman," at Arena Stage in Washington, D.C. until April 18, playwright Dael Orlandersmith crafts a poetic tale about the complicated issue of skin color among African Americans. The conflict is seen through the eyes of two young people who grow to love each other, despite a barrage of verbal, physical and emotional abuse from their friends and family.

Alma and Eugene first set eyes on each other in the elementary school playground, somewhere in South Carolina, in the 1960s. In the pure consciousness of children, they are drawn to and appreciate each other's differences. "You talk like the people on TV talk… you does talk good—I like it," Alma says to nine-year old Eugene. He's kind of a loner, and he admires Alma, even though she's two years younger, and says he wants to play with her. He is a child, and doesn't know how to tell her that he's impressed by the way that "Everybody likes you. EVERYBODY. How do you make everybody like you?"

Skin color is not an issue for Alma, a brown-skinned girl, and Eugene, who is fair-skinned. Yet their parents and friends perpetuate bitter color divisions born during slavery, and beat their children over the heads with it. Soon, the sweet joys of friendship, love and innocence are tainted by poisonous self-hate.

Alma (Laiona Michelle) and Eugene (Howard W. Overshown) tell their story, while also channeling the voices and bodies of their parents and friends. They share a natural chemistry, and it's easy to see how their characters are attracted to each other. Alma's introduces the audience to her mother Odelia, a woman who is "dark and large, therefore sexless." Alma's light skinned father abandoned them before she was born, but Odelia fantasizes that he'll return one day to take care of his family. While she waits, she drowns her pain by drinking, and teasing Alma in her Gullah/Geechie accent, calling her an "Ole big fat funny lookin' thing."

Eugene is the son of a "handsome, dark skinned man who didn't know he was handsome," and a light skinned black woman named Thelma who was disowned by her father for marrying a man so dark. Robert taunts his son constantly, asking Eugene questions like "Do you think I'd be more handsome if I was high yella like you?" They hate each other. And like Odelia, Robert and Thelma use drink to numb the torment.

Overshown originated the role of Eugene when "Yellowman" premiered in New York two years ago. His performance is commanding and seemingly effortless as he morphs from the awkward little boy to his drunken overpowering father Robert. He is also very believable when speaking in the voice of his whiny mother Thelma.

Michelle as Alma is amazing. She is the first to speak when the play opens, and at first it seems the shapely, young actress is miscast as she speaks of the burden of the big, Black women toiling in the hot South Carolina sun praising God in "their Gullah/Geechie/Ball n' Chain voices." Michelle possesses a lilting exuberance that literally and figuratively dances on the stage in the schoolyard scenes, and later when she is starting her new life in New York City. Yet she convincingly channels the desperate Odelia,who runs down a hot tar road in her bare feet crying, begging the man who humiliates her not to leave. This transformation is almost shocking. Michelle shows us with her slumped shoulders and mournful voice what happens to a woman after years of being beaten down by hate.

As they become teenagers, Eugene realizes he has fallen in love with Alma, and she with him. Forces in their environment, meanwhile, conspire to undermine their partnership. In spite of her circumstances, Alma grows up focused and ambitious, and earns a scholarship to Hunter College in New York. Eugene, meanwhile, drifts a bit. He starts drinking, and he doesn't want Alma to leave. His father continues to cut him down, saying that he is an aimless weakling, just like all the other light-skinned men.

Alma claims New York, and blossoms into a confident woman aware of the power of her beauty and intellect. Eugene visits her monthly, and they make plans to create a new life together. He is struck by how Alma has lost her Southern accent, and Alma tells him he still looks country, but that will change.

Suddenly, there is a jarring turn of events involving a death in the family, which occurs while Eugene is in New York visiting Alma. She returns to South Carolina with him. Eugene and Alma's parent's lives have spiraled downward, to the point where Alma even acknowledges the stench of their demise—it hits her in the face when she sees Odelia, Robert and Thelma together—the smell of alcohol and perfume and neglect is overpowering.

Tragedy follows the ultimate confrontation between family members, and Alma and Eugene's lives are transformed. Orlandersmith's rendering of this love story—"Yellowman" was a finalist for the 2001 Pulitzer Prize—is eloquent and beautiful in its simplicity. Michelle and Overshown do a brilliant job of bringing many other people to life, and making the audience care about their characters.

Each of us harbors a perspective about people of other cultures, races, sexual orientation, class, religions, and the spotlight on those differences is especially glaring during this election year. In the public and mixed-race space of theater, "Yellowman," speaks truth about how hate, ignorance and fear breed tragedy.

"Yellowman" runs through April 18, 2004 at Arena Stage, 1101 Sixth Street SW, Washington, D.C., (202) 488-3300. There will be a symposium, "Yellowman: Class and Color in American Drama" on Saturday, April 17, 2004, 10am-6pm, Carmichael Auditorium National Museum of American History, 14th and Constitution, NW, Washington, DC. Sponsored by Arena Stage in partnership with Howard University and The Anacostia Museum & Center for African American History and Culture.

-- March 15, 2004

© Copyright 2001-05 Seeing Black, Inc. All Rights Reserved.