Flash Trash Flyer (1)
Join forces with Mama Queenie and the poor people of Trash Town in their daily struggle to survive.
Marvel as they prove with talent and flash that they may be ‘Trash Towners’ by name but not by nature.
Laugh as King Nuff and the rich folk of Ready Heights bolt and bar their doors’ coz they don’t really like to see the poor.
Along the way you meet the Count of Crossroads, Lord Bag and Pan, cheeky young Khuskhus and the streetwise Windscreen Brigade, as well as King Nuff’s ‘orrible daughter the princess polyester.
First performed in Jamaica in 1985, Flash Trash had its British Premiere at the Half Moon Theatre.
You can access the script of this play via the British Library’s MPS Modern Playscripts Collection. This play is also listed on the National Theatre’s Black Plays Archive.
Yvonne Brewster directed Flash Trash, a Jamaican pantomime, at Half Moon Theatre on Mile End Road in the 1980s. She talks about how rehearsals in the ‘half built’ theatre in December required scarves and hats to keep warm, but this didn’t stop the production being a success for local audiences. Interviewed by Toni Tsaera.
Monica Forty is a Headteacher who has been involved with Half Moon Theatre, including as a youth worker and Trustee. She has brought children to see shows at Half Moon Theatre for over three decades. Here she remembers Flash Trash, which particularly stands out in her mind. Interviewed by Caitlin Ralph.
Theatre historian, Susan Croft talks about how the Jamaican influenced pantomime, Flash Trash was a significant piece of theatre in the mid 1980s in a multicultural area. Interviewed by Alexia-Pyrrha Ashford.
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