The sidekick becomes the hero in a show that’s slippery in more ways than initially appears. At the start, you think you know what it’s about, then smoke can be seen bursting out the ears of the audience as their minds are blown by a bloody curveball that careers into the plot and bursts it wide open. Kevin Calamity and his younger brother Joey’s show about slipping on one thousand banana peels morphs into a story about failed dreams, doing what makes you happy, and brotherly love… or hate. You can decide which.
From the moment the audience is let into the theatre, chaos ensues, with the drunk and volatile older brother Kevin cavorting across the stage boundary and beyond it, which is in equal parts entertaining and threatening. Kevin leaves abruptly, worse for wear, his body leaking from a few orifices to the bemused shock of the audience. When the show begins, his younger brother Joey gets the chance to step outside his older brother’s shadow and graduate to become the star of the show. The audience contorts with laughter at the sheer audacity of O’Neill’s leading performance which is relentlessly unpredictable. Not to give too much away, but he uses not just the stage, but the entire theatre and even outside of it to paint a very vivid picture of a performance gone horribly, horribly wrong. How O’Neill uses audience members emphasises his skills as a performer, who can encourage members of the public to do things that they likely will never be able to erase from their minds. The way the audience helps to build the narrative and achieve catharsis for Joey is a tremendous feat of improvised, yet structured storytelling.
How the Banana Brothers’ show unfolds does delve into surprisingly poignant territory. O’Neill as Joey must switch between building a rapport with the audience to desperately trying to contain a well of emotion bubbling inside him. His performance is carefully modulated, with the audience often overcome with hysteria and then feeling immense sympathy within the same scene.
Amid the breathtaking surprises, humour and quiet despair, it is such a shame that the structure of the show doesn’t quite hold the attention throughout. There is a part in the middle where Joey takes his opportunity to attempt all the banana slips that he came up with and that his brother forbids him to do. This segment only highlights that this show isn’t really about slipping on banana peels, as Joey’s slips aren’t all that impressive or elaborate. It may be the point of this segment but, if that’s the case, it goes on far too long, and actually could have been cut without affecting the larger plot.
Yet, you can only admire how much story can be made from a story gone wrong. You’ll never look at a banana the same way again. This show will peel your heart into long strips, and you’ll want to slip on a trail of bananas all the way home.
Image via Van Corona with permission to use as press material