BANANA

Rated PG 13. Local banana makes you laugh until you don't.
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BANANA

Recommended by

  • Nick Malakhow:
    4 Aug. 2023
    An intimate and tightly written solo show that explores the liminality of existing as a multiracial queer person. Hamashima tackles the assumptions, challenges, and roadblocks faced by Asian and Asian-American folks in the US and the manner in which multiracial people are encouraged in indirect and direct ways to assimilate and position themselves close to whiteness. They also so beautifully explore the impact of all those expectations on one's sense of self. All this is done in an engaging and theatrical manner that alternates moments of deep humor with moments of great pathos. I'd love to see this performed!
  • The New Cosmopolitans :
    18 Aug. 2022
    We had the honor of producing a virtual workshop of 'BANANA' as part of our New Queer Works series in Fall 2020. Sam Hamashima draws us into an intimate set of darkly funny bits, stemming from their experiences as a queer mixed-race artist, and then hits us with the brutality of the WWII Japanese internment camps, an American horror never fully owned. On Zoom this piece played with a level of connection we'd not experienced virtually before or since, so we can only imagine how powerful 'BANANA' could be in a small club/cabaret setting. We hope to find out soon.
  • Toby Malone:
    3 Dec. 2020
    This is a stunning, careening, important piece of work that has so many layers that it's easy to forget as you explore the horror of Japanese internment camps that mere minutes ago you were laughing at anecdotes on sexual awakenings and racial assumptions. Hamashima deftly crafts a genre-smashing self exploration that ultimately reveals itself to be a quarantine reaction but in no way follows the standard rules of one. Heartfelt, aching, hilarious, this self-exploration (complete with ALEXA) is a thing of beauty, and one that should be seen live often after the world returns.

Development History

  • Workshop
    ,
    The New Cosmopolitans
    ,
    2020

Production History

  • Professional
    ,
    Provincetown Theater
    ,
    2023
  • Professional
    ,
    Prime Produce
    ,
    2023