Durrant Pate/Contributor

LASCO Chin Foundation Scriptwriting Competition Winner, “Fire in December” comes to The Little Theatre in Kingston for a seven-day performance run during next month’s National Heroes season.

The winning script is moving from the page to the stage at The Little Theatre in Kingston for a seven-day run during Jamaica’s National Heroes season. David Tulloch’s new stage production brings National Hero Sam Sharpe and the 1831 Christmas Rebellion out of the textbook and onto the stage for 21 performances, October 5–11. 

From October 5–11, 2026, “Fire in December” will be presented across 21 performances with three shows daily, bringing to the stage a powerful Jamaican story centred on National Hero, Sam Sharpe and the events surrounding the 1831 Christmas Rebellion. The production marks an important next chapter for a script first recognised through the LASCO Chin Foundation’s initiative to support Jamaican writing and creative expression. 

Moving into professional production 

Having emerged as the competition’s winning work in 2025, “Fire in December” is now moving into professional production and will be presented to Jamaican audiences at one of the country’s best-known theatrical venues. “Fire in December” emerged from a competition hosted by the LASCO Foundation, where the script was awarded the winning prize.

“That recognition affirmed the power and relevance of the story. When coupled with the noticeable lack of information about Sam Sharpe within Jamaica’s present cultural atmosphere, I felt a responsibility to bring his story to the stage. Heroes Season provides the ideal moment—not only to honour Sharpe as a National Hero, but to humanise him, explore the courage behind his sacrif sacrifice, and ensure that a new generation understands the extraordinary price paid for our freedom,” explains David Tulloch, Writer and Director of Fire in December.

The production centres on Sharpe and the resistance that culminated in the Christmas Rebellion of 1831, one of the defining events in Jamaica’s journey towards emancipation. The production places audiences inside that history, using live performance to explore courage, sacrifice, resistance and the pursuit of freedom. Its October staging is particularly significant. 

Opening during the period in which Jamaica commemorates its National Heroes, the production invites audiences—particularly a new generation of Jamaicans—to encounter Sharpe not simply as a figure from the past, but as a man whose leadership and actions helped shape the country’s future. 

President, LASCO Chin Foundation, Professor Rosalea Hamilton says, “The foundation’s Scriptwriting Competition was created to provide a platform for Jamaican stories and the talented people who tell them. To now see Fire in December move from a winning script to a full stage production is exactly the kind of journey we want to encourage. This is more than recognition of a writer’s work; it is about creating opportunities for Jamaican stories to reach audiences, while helping a new generation engage with the people and events that have shaped our nation. We are proud to be associated with this next chapter of Fire in December and the opportunity it creates to bring the story of Sam Sharpe to life during Heroes Season.”