Review: Tutti Frutti in Yellow Is The Colour Of Sunshine

YELLOW Is The Colour Of Sunshine is a show for three year olds and upwards. For parents reading this, it deals with what scientific advisor David Cottrell, professor of child and adolescent psychiatry at Leeds University, calls "emotional literacy".

In a nutshell, this is a child's state of feeling emotions without having the words or past experience to describe them. To put those feelings into words or, rather, a combination of words and physical expression, writer Brendan Murray tells the 50-minute tale of a little boy and girl, Yoshi (Connor Bryson) and Hani (Phoebe Stapleton), as they become friends, discover feelings and work out how to communicate what their heart feels.

There is a third partner in their journey: movement director Holly Irving plays impactful roles as the sky (symbolised by a blue sheet), a magpie and a kite.

It is the kite that leads to Yoshi and Hani experiencing feelings for the first time: joy but also jealousy and frustration when one will not let the other play. We have all been there!

Kate Bunce's Japanese-inspired design, full of primary colours, has a bright yellow disc of a sun, but also a box, where Yoshi sometimes hides away, and a tent, where Hani does likewise, when upset.

Director Wendy Harris has made a brilliant decision in casting D/deaf actor Connor Bryson as Yoshi, because British Sign Language, dance and facial expressions become as important as the spoken word, reflecting how so much is expressed through the face and body in children.

Charles Hutchinson