Inspired by the writings of Eugène Ionesco, “Bananaritis” is a descent into the abyss of comic absurdity.”
“Although not a direct comment on the role of the phallus in society, Rubel’s banana exhibits sexual, cultural and social potency.”
-Phinn Sriployrung, Highlander Press, University of California, Riverside.
Bananaritis is a performance piece by Tim Rubel Human Shakes, that combines contemporary dance styles with theatrical spectacle to create a strange world where intimate queer relationships are being re-imagined because of a strange new symbol of social order; the banana. There is no real significance of the symbol for this new world order being a banana, other than perhaps its phallic shape. It is really just a random object for people to project their obsessions onto. Using humor and satire, Bananaritis suggests that societies have often become obsessed with the most ridiculous ideas, thus allowing them to be led down a path where sensible communication is no longer possible, and individual opinions are replaced by fascist ideology.
Throughout the dance, queer individuals are consistently negotiating for affection from others and sometimes achieving it, but often being rejected. Still they continue to pursue these people just as they continue to become more infatuated with bananas. In the end, all of the dancers’ individual identities are lost when they are all transformed into militant life-sized bananas. In this new banana order no individual forms of sexual, racial, or gender equality are allowed. All must submit to becoming bananas and recruiting more members for the movement or risk isolation and imprisonment.
“I do not reference any specific fascist or anti-queer movement in this piece. Instead, I am interested in creating a performance representation of one, and allowing the audience to develop their own theories about it, based on their lived experiences with the politics of power and the disciplining of individual bodies.” -Tim Rubel, Choreographer.
Bananaritis is loosely based off of the theatrical writings of 20th century Absurdist playwright, Eugene Ionesco (1909-1994). Ionesco’s plays often centered around an individual’s resistance to limitations put onto his/her life by the hegemonic political system in which they live. The initial inspiration for making choreographic material came from several of Ionesco’s early plays where a re-occurring male character by the name of “Berenger” is the protagonist resisting the highly provincial social and political norms of his community.
Choreographer, Tim Rubel read many Ionesco plays as well as his own reflective writings about his work and the Theatre that produced it. He started to notice that Ionesco’s plays; particularly the “Berenger plays” had possibilities for a queer interpretation. He began to think of Berenger as a queer identifying person who is acting against the absurd ways in which many political systems attempt to discipline queer bodies. He then began to construct movement that was trying to get at this idea, using lines from Ionesco’s The Killer and Rhinoceros. Like the dialogue in an Ionesco play, the choreography in this dance plays with alternative logic patterns. The dancers interact with each other making strange physical choices, while verbally communicating in ways that seem utterly confusing at times. However, it is (hopefully) clear to the audience that in their (the dancers’) world, they are acting perfectly normal. Bananaritis was first presented at the University of California, Riverside on Oct. 15th, 2009.
When: Saturday March 20th 2010. One show only!
8:00PM
Where: CounterPULSE: 1310 Mission St. @ 9th
San Francisco, CA
Tickets: $20.00/At the Door
$15.00/With reservation
$5 discount to all CounterPULSE members.
For reservations call or email Brown Paper Tickets at (800) 838-3006 or go to www.brownpapertickets.com.
For information on CounterPULSE please visit www.counterpulse.org
For information on Tim Rubel Human Shakes please email Humanshakes@yahoo.com or call (401) 440-5440