Cast and Creative Team Set For January's MAKE BANANA CRY At Buddies In Bad Times
Performed by Francesca Chudnoff, Hanako Hoshimi-Caines, Cynthia Koppe, Sehyoung Lee, Andrew Tay, and Stephen Thompson.
On stage for a limited run at Buddies in Bad Times Theatre this January is the Toronto premiere of Make Banana Cry, a merging of runway aesthetics with contemporary performance and dance, created by choreographers Andrew Tay and Stephen Thompson.
Performed by Francesca Chudnoff, Hanako Hoshimi-Caines, Cynthia Koppe, Sehyoung Lee, Andrew Tay, and Stephen Thompson, Make Banana Cry runs for four nights only from January 14 to 17, 2026. Opening night is January 14.
"banana" isn't just slang - it's a symbol of the performance, erasure, and reclamation of self.
In an attempt to shake off the weight of representation and fetishization, an international cast of six East Asian artists critique, parody, and protest stereotypes of "Asian-ness." Slipping between the codes of couture and contemporary art, straddling spectacles of consumption and entertainment, Make Banana Cry is an impressive demonstration of physicality, an unrelenting examination of Western xenophobia, and an ingenious show of humour and wit. It will be presented for the first time in Toronto after critically acclaimed performances at Impulstanz (Vienna), Portland Institute of Contemporary Art and Festival TransAmériques (Montreal). "We made Make Banana Cry out of a shared need to confront the troubling images and expectations placed on us as East Asian diasporic performers," says Andrew Tay, co-choreographer & performer. "What feels most powerful to me is that the work doesn't lecture or offer a tidy narrative. It opens a space for audiences to reflect on their own relationships to "Asian-ness," whether shaped by personal history, pop culture, or inherited bias-regardless of their background. And we do this in a way that is queer, subversive, humorous, tender, and defiantly playful. The performers bring a depth of nuance that reflects the fluid, shifting realities of our identities today, making the piece both emotionally destabilizing and joyfully irreverent."
The creative team brings the fashion-show setting to life: Dominique Pétrin (visual installation), Emerson Kafarowski (technical director), Romane de Montgrand (production) and Öykü Önder (lighting design + tour technician), with costumes + styling by Andrew Tay, Stephen Thompson, Dominique Pétrin, and the performers.
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