Monday, June 22, 2015

Exit Joan Trash

BARTHOLOMEW FAIR by Ben Jonson really picks up when these punk rock characters Leatherhead and Trash show up. Of course it was 1614 and they didn't have punk rock then as far as I know. And then I'm reading along and there's a stage direction, "Exit Joan Trash." And so it made me even happier that Trash's first name is Joan, somehow that's even MORE punk rock. The characters use the word "punk" a lot, as a matter of fact, though back then it meant "prostitute." When I looked at the dramatis personae to confirm Trash's first name, I noticed that there's a character named "Punk Alice" in the wings.