Brighton Festival 2025
TRASHedy
Jumped Up Theatre
Genre: Contemporary, Dance and Movement Theatre, International, Visual Art
Venue: The Dance Space
Festival: Brighton Festival
Low Down
With switches of tone, pacy scenes, humour in the exchanges and expert physicality TRASHedy packs a hell of punch in under an hour.
Review
It’s sobering to learn that Jumped Up Theatre’s feisty mixed media two-hander about consumerism, global economics and the eco-crisis was made in 2011. With a huge increase in the world’s population over that time, the desire for ‘stuff’ – packaged, transported, ephemeral and often needless, has really got out of hand.
Welcome then to TRASHedy, in which two performers try to find a way through this problem, coming at it from sometimes different perspectives and using a multiplicity of theatrical treats and gestural choreography to get us involved and energised. Across a makeshift white screen Leandro Kees’ childlike drawings provide a visual narration to Daniel Matheus and Maria-Lena Kaiser’s opening slinky, improvised dance suggestive of flora, fauna and an ominous wind approaching.
Together they conjure and discard paper cups in the colour of (possibly) the world’s most famous fizzy drink and illustrate the chain of production using an audience member’s leather shoe and an iPhone. Should they throw it in the bin? “Then it would all have been for nothing” responds a smart 8 year old from the audience. And that’s the dilemma here, how can we affect this sorry situation, where veg is shrink wrapped and overbuilding clogs the skyline?
Daniel and Maria-Lena take opposing viewpoints to fight this out, she’s hopefully optimistic, he reveals his t-shirt slogan Kill Yourself, which jars somewhat in today’s social climate. The stage becomes messier, the movement more dynamic as the couple battle with the big question of individual responsibility. “I’ve acquired a kind of madness” a voice sings as the piece reaches a pitch. Martin Rascher perfectly cues his own music and the animation which tracks the show’s journey. With switches of tone, pacy scenes, humour in the exchanges and expert physicality the show packs a hell of punch in under an hour.
The company has performed TRASHedy all over the world adapting the language to suit the country (German and English in Brighton) and often play in schools. Certainly there are more bright kids who would learn from and contribute wisely to the interaction offered.
To help us all take a breath, the performers listen back to a recording of the show’s genesis, expertly lip-synching to each other’s voice and questioning whether what they are doing is interesting or worthwhile. Time has proved it is both, and sadly just as vital.
