Trailer/Trash
Hope springs eternal for two friends, waitress Frankie and stripper Dottie, who live out their mundane existence in a trailer park somewhere in the arse end of America. This new play by Mike Elliston is performed by Famous & Divine (aka dynamic duo Amanda Price and Mary Steadman) – a company they set up in 2007 to explore the experience of womanhood in modern society.
Dottie (Steadman) has supposedly been promised a contract to headline a Las Vegas show while Frankie (Price) aspires to be the man in a tux she once saw in a film. As such the pair get swept away, American Dream-style, in a whirlwind of expectation and free-flowing alcohol at the prospect of a new life just around the corner.
Honing their Deep South accents to a tee, Steadman and Price work wonders together as they effortlessly combine the funny with the tragic in their shrewd and feminist depiction of white trash. Although men are mentioned they are never seen and audiences might find their sexuality to be a subtle point for debate. Like Thelma & Louise both are only too ready to throw caution to the wind as they thirst for adventure at every turn.
It’s Price’s Frankie who gets the most laughs. Depicted in her job at the fast food diner she mimics the repetition of her exchanges with customers that seem as though they’re taken straight from a trainee retail worker’s handbook. And the wearing of a vibrating strap-on in a later scene somewhat distracts you from the dialogue at hand – but it’s excruciatingly funny.
The language does get a tad strained on occasion and video footage used to break up some scenes, although a nice touch, feels as though it’s been shoehorned in. Even so, Trailer Trash is a worthwhile exploration of dreams whether real, imagined or insane.
