The ups-and-downs of family feel authentic if maudlin in Del Shores’ ‘Yellow’
ANGST FOR THE MEMORY | The high school jock (Justin Duncan) upstages his volatile sister (Zoe Kerr) while her gay BFF (Grant Bower) lusts after him in ‘Yellow.’ (Photo courtesy Mike Morgan)
After more than half a dozen plays, Del Shores has certainly developed a recognizable recipe: Begin with hilarious jokes in Act 1, fold in melodrama in Act 2 (a pinch of mawkishness recommended). Sprinkle in a gay sensibility, toss with religious zealotry gone bad. Stir it up.
That formula serves him well in Yellow, his newest play and in many ways his best. Does the opening scene go on too long? Yes. (It could be cut entirely, in fact.) Is the message about the damage Christian fundamentalism does to the gay soul ham-fisted? You know it. Do the one-liners make room for sentimental, tearjerker plot twists? Granted. But the question is: Do you care? This is what Shores does. And he’s made a good living doing it, because people respond.
Certainly Yellow taps into a number of familiar issues: Infidelity; teenaged sexual confusion; Bible-thumping as emotional jihad. But Shores (who also directed this production) and his cast tap into an authenticity rare in this kind of domestic comedy-drama — Steel Magnolias with a hunky dad.
The best example of this is Zoe Kerr as Gracie, the starstruck teen with a gay best friend (Grant Bower, who successfully channels Chris Colfer). Anyone who’s ever lived with a 14-year-old girl knows that Shores nails her ranting and raving — it’s all too eerily accurate. Zoe feels upstaged by her brother Dayne (Justin Duncan), the school jock and apple of his dad’s eye. Zoe becomes even more hostile when Dayne is diagnosed with a rare liver disease, the treatment of which turns up dark family secrets.
Kerr and Bower navigate the odd friendship between pre-sexual besties with genuine humor and pathos, and Shores surprises us by having the men of the family be protective and supporting of the flamboyant boy in homophobic Vicksburg, Miss. All the actors, in fact, bring a lived-in quality, including Kristin McCullough as the seemingly perfect mom and Jeff Plunk as the town DILF. They doff off the jokes as expertly as the tears. Yellow might not be as heady as Red, but its bluesy tone leaves you in the pink.
This article appeared in the Dallas Voice print edition March 1, 2013.
