Make Banana Cry is a dance work by Andrew Tay and Stephen Thompson currently being presented by Toronto Dance Theatre at Buddies in Bad Times.  It’s an exploration of Asian stereotypes seen through both Asian and non Asian lenses.  Six dancers process through the audience which is arranged so that the dancers’ path is a U shape and nobody is more than two rows away from the action.  At the top of the U they add or subtract clothing and pick up props so each “procession” is a bit different.  The sound track is eclectic combining, inter alia, K-pop and J-pop with Western pseudo orientalism.  Inevitably Un bel di and extracts from Miss Saigon make brief appearances.

It starts with all the dancers wrapped up in parkas, scarves, face masks etc shuffling anonymously round the circuit.  This goes on for quite a long time.  Then it heats up a bit.  Clothes are shed and props are acquired.  Portage and Main is replaced by varying degrees of nudity sometimes covered in gauzy fabric.  Incongruous utensils; a fancy toilet plunger, a fuzzy, googly eyed turd slipper and a fly swatter etc, are wielded.  Fruits and vegetables are carried and sometimes tossed.  Just occasionally the dancers are released to show us that they can, in fact, dance.  Rather well, in fact.

Some of the images are striking; Iron Chef Turd Slipper and Madama Butterfly Anal Fly Swatter are particularly memorable.  To me though it felt very short on any sort of structure, let alone a narrative.  Indeed towards the end when the cast was lying on the floor immobile and more or less naked I wasn’t sure whether the show had ended or not until eventually they got up and did a final procession.  I think I get what the creators are trying to do but, for me at least, it really didn’t communicate effectively.

There are two more performances of Make Banana Cry; tonight and tomorrow (January 16th and 17th).

Photo credit: Richmond Lam (1 and 2), Diana Agunbiade (3) and Manuel Vasson (4)