Flash Trash (1986)

Flash Trash

by

Barbara Gloudon

Half Moon Theatre

Flash Trash is a Jamaican pantomime that was first seen in Britain at the Half Moon Theatre in London’s East End. It is a unique form that developed from the traditions of British pantomime (principal boys, dames and evil foiled by goodness) to incorporate figures and motifs from Jamaican folklore like Anansi and Queenie, Jamaican patois and Jamaican music. Flash Trash is a reggae pantomime with 14 songs driving the action.

Jamaica’s King of Comedy Oliver Samuels played King Nuff in the first production at the Little Theatre Movement in Jamaica.

In London, Robert Phillips, a highly respected theatre actor who also appeared in The Black Jacobins took the role of Nuff and most of the cast have since become key figures in Black British theatre’s rich history: director Yvonne Brewster was the first Black woman to attend a British drama school and went on to found Talawa Theatre, Michael Buffong, who played Dukie, is now Talawa’s artistic director. Musical director Felix Cross went on to become the Artistic Director of Nitro (formerly Black Theatre Co-Operative); Brian Bovell, who played Princess Polyester, is a famous actor on stage and screen as is Claire Benedict who played Queenie. Mattie was played by Cleo Sylvestre, described by the Guardian as ‘trailblazing British black actor’ and the first Black woman to appear in a play at the National Theatre and in television soap operas.