Hello Yellow

Dael Orlandersmith’s two-character drama Yellowman is playing at Trinity Rep through April 3. It played at Long Wharf’s Stage II nine years ago this month. I recall that production well. I liked it quite a bit, but could only praise Orlandersmith’s own performance through backhanded compliments, since I’d felt she’d improved so much as a performer since her earlier one-woman show The Gimmick (also seen at Long Wharf, in 1998). This led to a volatile phone call from Ms. Orlandersmith and some awkward diplomatic maneuvers between the theater she was performing at and the newspaper I was writing for. The next time I interviewed her, for the Long Wharf’s world premiere of The Blue Album (a collaboration with David Cale), she barely spoke to me, and I don’t altogether blame her.
In any case, Dael Orlandersmith is not performing the female role in Yellowman in Rhode Island. The cast consists of Joe Wilson Jr. and Rachel Christopher. Regardless of who’s doing it, the play is a cleverly constructed relationship drama where separate monologues gradually gravitate closer and closer until it miraculously merges into a deep dialogue.