Yellow Moon: Plot

Yellow Moon by David Greig is a play set in modern-day Scotland. It was first performed in 2006.

The play is set in the in the urban town of Inverkeithing and in the rural Highlands. It follows two teenagers, Lee Macalinden and Leila Suleiman, who come from different backgrounds but form a connection when they run away together after a violent incident.

Yellow Moon looks at how young people navigate personal and social challenges.The play explores themes such as:

• Youth and growing up: The play explores the challenges of adolescence, including difficult home lives and the struggle to understand who you are.

• Crime and violence: The events of the play show how crime and violence have serious and lasting consequences on people’s lives.

• Fantasy vs reality : Characters often escape into fantasy to cope with their lives. Lee romanticises his father and his future, while Leila is drawn to celebrity culture. The play explores how people use imagination to cope with reality.

• Relationships : Relationships are central to the play. The bond between Leila and Lee helps them to grow, while difficult family relationships shape their actions and choices.

Yellow Moon ultimately explores how young people’s lives are shaped by their choices, relationships and the situations they grow up in.

David Greig wrote Yellow Moon specifically for a teenage audience. He wanted to write a play that would take young people seriously. He was also interested in creating a fast-moving, exciting story that could be performed in schools with minimal staging. He described the idea as creating something like a “Hollywood gangster movie”, with shoot-outs, love and car chases, but told simply through storytelling and performance.

Music is an important influence on Greig. Yellow Moon is inspired by the traditional American folk ballad, "Stagger Lee" (also known as “Stack O’ Lee Blues” or “Stagolee”). The epigraph mentions a version by 20th century US folk singer, Mississippi John Hurt, while the play ends with Lloyd Price’s version, which was a US hit in the 1950s.

The song tells a dramatised version of a true event. In St Louis, Missouri, in 1895, a man named Lee Shelton shot Billy Lyons following an argument, reportedly over a hat. The “Stagger Lee” ballad turned this real-life crime into a larger-than-life story, making the tale more dramatic and turning Lee Shelton into a legendary outlaw figure. This context is clearly reflected in Yellow Moon. Lee kills Billy Logan after a conflict involving his hat, and his nickname “Stag Lee” directly links him to the ballad. Lee also sees his life as a kind of story or legend.

While versions of the song present Stagger Lee as powerful or heroic, Greig shows the reality of violence. The killing in the play is sudden and uncontrolled, and its consequences are serious and lasting. Lee is not a heroic outlaw, but a confused and vulnerable teenager.

Lee is introduced as a troubled teenager with a reputation for bad behaviour. He lives in Chapel Terrace Flats with his mum, Jenni, who struggles with depression and drinks heavily. Her boyfriend, Billy, is aggressive and cruel to Lee.

Leila Suleiman is presented as a contrast to Lee. She comes from a successful, professional family and it is expected that she will be high-achieving like them. She chooses not to speak and her inner thoughts reveal deep self-hatred: “my stupid ugly body self sitting there stupid and ugly.”

Lee shows impulsive behaviour in his quest to “make big money from a life of crime.” He steals Billy’s engagement ring and pawns it. He buys drugs, tries to buy alcohol, and plans to shoplift. At a shop, Leila reads celebrity magazines and self-harms in the toilets. When Lee arrives, he asks her to go to the cemetery with him. Leila experiences “a feeling like someone opening a door” and leaves with Lee.

At Chapel Terrace, Billy drunkenly proposes to Lee’s mum. At the cemetery, Lee boasts about girls and his plans to become a "pimp" (someone who makes money exploiting people for sex work). Billy arrives and attacks Lee, who does not retaliate. When Billy grabs Lee’s hat – a symbol of his identity – Lee stabs him. Billy dies. The sudden violence shows how quickly Lee loses control.

Lee and Leila go to the beach. Lee talks about travelling north to find his father and asks Leila to go with him. He returns home, confesses to his mum that he has killed Billy and shows remorse for his actions:

I’m sorry. … I didn’t mean to do it but I did.”

At the station, Leila begins to doubt her decision to leave. She recognises that the reality might be different to what she imagines:

Maybe we’re not in a story at all.”

However, when Lee arrives, she feels that “suddenly everything is real again”.

On their journey north, Lee describes his father as a powerful gangster. He shows Leila a postcard of a large house at Blackwaterside, a Highland estate, and imagines a life of wealth and status:

That must be his house. Must be about fifty rooms. … Got his own mountain.”

Lee’s idealised image of his father reveals his desire to escape reality.

In the Highlands, Lee and Leila meet Frank, the Blackwaterside gamekeeper. When Lee explains that he is there to find his father, Dan Macalinden, Frank tells him that Dan is dead.

Frank takes them to Blackwaterside. He confirms the estate once belonged to Lee’s father. Frank offers Leila and Lee shelter and work.

The reality of hard labour and poor living conditions contrasts sharply with Lee’s expectations:

My dad was the king of Glasgow. … This was supposed to be the lap of luxury.”

Frustrated with the hard work, Lee walks out. Frank’s internal monologue reveals his troubled past, including crime and time in prison.

Lee and Leila stay on the estate for three months. They help Frank, who drinks heavily, with his work. The pair begin to forget about their old lives and grow closer. Leila and Lee break into the Blackwaterside house. Lee fantasises about his father’s life, revealing his desire for belonging:

He sat here and he thought about me.”

The pair almost kiss, but they are interrupted by the arrival of Holly Malone, a celebrity who Leila recognises from her magazines. When they escape to the woods, Lee tries to act confident about sex but he is insecure and inexperienced. Leila speaks for the first time, telling Lee to “Take off your clothes”.

Leila meets Holly and discovers that, despite her fame, Holly is unhappy. Like Leila, her body is marked by self-harm scars. While working, Lee’s hat falls into a fire. Leila retrieves it and they stand together.

Like two burned trees. Good as new.”

The moment symbolises connection and renewal, and Leila’s internal monologue reveals her desire to hold onto this fragile happiness:

Please please please let it always be like this. … Please let that be the end of the story.”

Lee asks Frank if he is his father. Frank’s thoughts reveal fear and a reluctance to confront reality.

It becomes clear that Frank is Lee’s father. However, he struggles to express his conflicted feelings of guilt, regret and emotional distance.

Lee clings to a romanticised idea of his father and tries to connect with him by telling the story of the hat and confessing that he killed Billy. Frank finds it difficult to respond. His only external line of dialogue shows frustration and an attempt to push Lee away.

Lee runs off in distress and steals a car from the Blackwaterside estate. Leila and Holly chase him. Lee crashes the vehicle and escapes again, showing his reluctance to face reality.

Newspaper headlines exaggerate the story of Leila and Lee. Leila challenges these versions of events:

It didn’t happen like that.”

She explains that she found notes left behind by Frank, which highlight that, while flawed, Frank is not a bad person. He takes responsibility for what happened and describes Lee as “a good boy”. This shows his love and sense of duty as a father, despite his emotional distance. Frank’s note to Lee says “I’m sorry”, showing his regret for what has happened between them.

Leila finds Lee in a cave with Frank’s dead body. Lee is unstable and holding a gun. He imagines violent scenarios where he kills the police who are waiting for him outside. Leila tries to help him focus on a more hopeful future. Her long speech shows how much she has grown in confidence and emotional strength. Lee starts to accept reality and eventually drops the gun.

Together they bury Frank’s heart, symbolising their attempt to come to terms with the past. The play ends with them leaving together to face the police.

Information and support

If you, or someone you know, have been affected by the issues in this article, the following page contains a list of organisations and information for young people that may be helpful: Information and Support: Bitesize