As the halogen stage lights brighten the runway, a whooshing, industrial soundtrack comes over the PA system. One by one, five dancers emerge from behind a colourful backstage wall to walk the ramp. They are Francesca Chudnoff, Cynthia Koppe, Sehyoung Lee, Andrew Tay, and Stephen Thompson. From the outset it is difficult to tell them apart, as they are covered head to toe in thick winter gear. Only their eyes, covered in bands of fluorescent makeup, peek out from under wrapped scarves and toques. Their bulging attire suggests many layers worn underneath, supporting extra weight to be peeled away while on display. The embodied baggage of anti-Asian racism, hate, or caricature is heavy to bear when it is part and parcel of the dominant culture. Once the audience is lulled into a false sense of security with a slow march, a call-out by one of the performers sends the event into another gear. Music blares over the speakers and layers of clothing begin to fall away. Over the course of the next hour, Make Banana Cry<\/em> confronts us with a living archive of symbols, gestures, objects, and sounds underscoring an oppressive umbrella of clich\u00e9s that signify \u201cAsianness\u201d for white Westerners. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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$\"MakeBananaCry\"$
Andrew Tay & Stephen Thompson<\/strong>
Make Banana Cry<\/em>, 2022.
Photos: Richmond Lam<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
A soundtrack of familiar songs, including those from Puccini\u2019s Madama Butterfly<\/em> (1904), Serge Gainsbourg\u2019s Les femmes c\u2019est du chinois<\/em> (1961), Disney\u2019s The<\/em> Aristocats <\/em>(1970), and Carl Douglas\u2019s Kung Fu Fighting<\/em> (1998), emphasizes how ingrained the appropriation, fetishization, and standardization of Asian culture has become. The choreography explores a different trope or stereotypical character each time a dancer circles the catwalk. Among these, of which there are too many to name, are the tourist, the janitor, the peddler, the sex kitten, the exhibitionist, the Shen Yun dancer, the dominatrix, the anime cartoon, the samurai, and the geisha. Through clever uses of props, such as baby-blue fly swatters, a plush poop emoji slipper, a plastic visor, and a lime-green neck pillow, each performer presents a magnificent suit of archetypes that expose the sexualization and ostracization of Asian people and the homogenization of distinct Asian communities into a broader pan-Asian whole.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
By placing the mostly white audience members facing each other, watching each other laugh while realizing that this seemingly playful representation constitutes an aggression, Make Banana Cry<\/em> puts us on display as much as it does the dancers. With its many intricate details, from the set design by Dominique P\u00e9trin to the constantly evolving choreography with its beautiful use of innumerable props and costumes as an ever-multiplying library of signifiers, Tay and Thompson\u2019s performance is a tour de force worth watching, rewatching, and considering long after the curtain call.<\/p>\n
Andrew Tay, Didier Morelli, Stephen Thompson<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Festival TransAm\u00e9riques,<\/strong> Salle polyvalente de l’UQAM, Montr\u00e9al
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