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Yellow

 
Rebecca Vines Review by Rebecca Vines 3 Published: 20 Aug 2025 theSpace @ Niddry St Show Dates: 11 Aug 2025-23 Aug 2025

Ben Jonson famously said of his contemporary that Shakespeare was “not for an age, but for all time,” and in this new piece from the Cross-Gartered Players, we see how his Illyrian characters might fare if translated to modern London.

Not for an age, but for all time

Billed as 'Twelfth Night meets The Thick of It', Yellow takes place in a shabby law firm where Malvolio is lying low after his fall from grace in the employ of Olivia (now a governmental minister). We meet plenty of recognisable characters: the young idealists, the dodgy overgrown public schoolboy, the newbie desperate to make a difference, and the damaged soul lurking in the corner – Malvolio.

The piece is very well-staged in the airy Niddry Lower. If you like your Shakespeare, there are plenty of references to his life and works that will tickle your palate. And if you are of a more political bent, the machinations and moral capriciousness bowl along steadily, asking the audience to question their own ethical stability.

If you are unfamiliar with the source material, it doesn’t matter. Yorgos Filippakis as ‘Mal’ conjures the reimagined awfulness of his downfall with sensitivity and sincerity, while Heli Pärna plays his confidante Rosie with a generosity that allows the bigger characters to shine. As befits a setting in the machine room for plots being laid and inductions dangerous, the writing is never tempted to create characters that are too sympathetic. We are treated to the three-dimensionality of humanity without seeking to excuse it. A brave choice, and one which reflects the original most effectively.

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The Blurb:

Twelfth Night meets The Thick of It in a modern-day reimagining of what might have become of Malvolio after his fall from grace. Mal, once a ministerial adviser, now defends fraudsters in a shabby law firm. Rosie, an idealistic young lawyer, offers him a way back to his old life – but in a world where the highest ideals are sustained by the grubbiest actions, what looks like redemption might be a trap. Written by a senior political insider, Yellow is a witty, thought-provoking depiction of the realities – and compromises – of office life, law and today's politics.