Can it really be three decades since global mega hit Stomp, then in a production at Sadler’s Wells, garnered two Olivier nominations? The show, a gritty high-energy urban musical dance piece combining percussion and physical comedy, and using found objects, such as garbage cans, brooms, and basketballs, closed on Broadway in 2023 after a 29-year run.
Sadler’s Wells’ West End outpost The Peacock Theatre seems to have identified a Stomp-shaped hole in its schedules and has filled it with TRASH! Anticipate gritty high-energy urban musical dance and physical theatre using found objects as musical instruments. First seen in 2021, the show makes its UK premiere fresh from a European tour and a sell-out run at Madrid’s Gran Teatro. If you liked Stomp, you’ll probably like TRASH! though it lacks the surprise element of its 1990s predecessor.
Co-devised by creatives at multi-award-winning production company Yllana, which specialises in comedy and visual humour, and fellow Spanish percussion group Toompak, the show promises that every instrument is recycled from discarded objects. Gas tanks, tyres, plastics bottles, bins, umbrellas, basketballs, toolboxes, horns, and bin bags have rarely been so sonorous, at least not since Stomp. It is hard to decipher any obvious eco-message in the piece, other than the nod to recycling. The piece may indeed have ‘green’ credentials but it is hard to identify them from what happens on stage.
Absent any obvious narrative or storytelling, the show lacks much emotional complexity or dramatic tension, leaving the 75-minute piece (plus an unnecessary interval) to rely an awful lot on audience call and response, and clever tricks with supermarket trolleys and plastic bottles. The in-your-face audience interaction—hints here of the forced communal ‘fun’ of the cult (and cultish) musical hit TheChoir of Man – might grate with some, though the child-heavy press night audience loved it.
Still, TRASH! is technically very skilled and offers a solid dose of feel-good fun. An a cappella rendition of Beethoven tapped out on the back of a butane tank is stunning, as is an umbrella twirling homage to Singing in the Rain. Dance styles offer a nod to tap, flamenco, and samba. Pop and rock classics, including We Will Rock You, La Bamba, and Stand by Me add to the mash-up. Could that possibly be the theme tune to Game Of Thrones played on coke bottles?
The likeable quartet of Gorka González, Fran Mark, Bruno Alves, Harold Gazeau deliver with charisma and style, aided by witty direction from David Ottone and Jony Elias. Tatiana de Sarabia’s attractive costume palette includes rustic brown boiler suits, and garish orange hard hats.
Creation and Co-Direction: David Ottone, Jony Elias and Gorka Gonzalez
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