The Pushcart War

Dramatized by Gregory A. Falls based on the book by Jean Merrill. A war begins with a Daffodil Massacre and ends with a Cantaloupe Day! An action-packed allegory, set in the next century, which looks back on the 1990s when the people of New York City made a choice between progress and pushcarts. Cartoon-like masks, mobile trucks and pushcarts, fanciful sound effects. Futuristic costumes. Cast of 6 men, 2 women (doubling to portray over 50 characters).

In 2011, a television documentary program recaps the 1991 Pushcart War in New York City, which began when Mack, driving a mammoth moving truck, ran over the pushcart belonging to Morris the Florist. Morris was pitched headfirst into a pickle barrel and daffodils were scattered everywhere. This calamity was part of a grand conspiracy by “The Three” largest trucking firms in the city to remove all pushcarts, automobiles, and taxis from the streets of New York. The pushcart peddlers fought back with a “secret weapon,” and the battle with the trucks raged on and on. Finally, the peddlers staged a Peace march, but even this did not stop the trucks; and the mayor charged the pushcarts with disturbing traffic. The people of New York, however, came to the peddlers’ defense in a startling conclusion.