Theatre review: Yellowfin

In the middle of what seems to be a constant stream of doom-laden theatre (I thought light comedy was meant to flourish when the actual outside world was relentlessly depressing?) at least Marek Horn's environmental satire Yellowfin gives its dire warnings with a distinct side of quirkiness. Set in Washington DC some decades in the future, and specifically 35 years after all the oceans' fish mysteriously disappeared overnight, three US Senators have gathered to question Mr Calantini (Joshua James,) a manufacturer of artificial fish meat, who's already spent some time in prison for dealing in cans of the real thing on the black market. Led by the seemingly unflappable Marianne (Nancy Crane,) the panel also consists of the cold-bloodedly ambitious Stephen (Beruce Khan,) and the affable Roy (Nicholas Day,) who's prone to letting proceedings go off-course when he reminisces about his youth when you could eat real fish.

Calantini is there to face accusations he's not been told about yet; the Senators imply they have evidence he's resumed his illegal trade, and that if he can't convince them otherwise he'll be formally charged and face more jail time.

But first they want to make him squirm by going over the story of his family's canning business and the smuggling sideline, and his brother's grisly murder by Russian mobsters who accused him of ripping them off. This is as much about world-building as it is exposition - setting us in the context of a world where the wild fish disappeared, it's not only made the little remaining tinned stock incredibly valuable and desirable, but created a whole new type of existential dread for humanity: How, why and where did the fish go, and did they know something that we don't?

It's a search for these answers that proves to be the real motivation behind the hearing, culminating in the crucial question of whether an unopened tin of tuna is yellowfin or bluefin. The first half plays out as a kind of courtroom drama, although despite how the balance of power should weigh out, James' Calantini bubbles with suppressed energy and is wilfully disrespectful throughout, as if he knows from the start they need his knowledge, and knowledge is power. Eventually Marianne's calm façade breaks into fury and desperation, as she proves to be the one most fully consumed by the mystery. With the cast on opposite ends of Anisha Fields' traverse set, the back-and-forth can be like watching a tennis match, which is a bit of a literal pain in the neck - is the production sponsored by Deep Heat?*

Fortunately the more the power dynamic breaks down, the more Ed Madden's production uses the whole stage to build up the tension between the characters and take the story into increasingly surreal areas. This means that although envisioning a bleak future - much of Europe is underwater and The English are essentially spoken of as extinct - the play and production - which has a luxury cast for Southwark's studio space - can retain a light touch and be genuinely entertaining. The play's a little bit too long and there's some pacing issues: There's a time for Day's character to have a rambling monologue, or Khan's to get tongue-tied by his own jargon, and the buildup to the play's climax isn't one of those times. But for the most part Yellowfin shows how you can balance the serious with the absurd, and deal with an important subject without sending the audience out more depressed than they came in.

Yellowfin by Marek Horn is booking until the 6th of November at Southwark Playhouse's Little Theatre.

Running time: 1 hour 40 minutes straight through.

Photo credit: Helen Maybanks.

*the traverse also means I could see the audience member who responded to the announcement about face coverings indoors by leaving his mask hanging off one ear for the whole show, because why just endanger people when you can also tell them to go fuck themselves at the same time?