Benjamin ‘Monki’ Kuitenbrouwer is the creator and performer of 60% Banana which will perform in the showcase of Dutch circus coming to Jacksons Lane. This is not a circus celebrates new circus forms coming out of the Netherlands at the moment, presented by TENT and Split Second.
Monki’s 60% Banana is a cheerful message for angry citizens: a theatrical circus show on the theme of optimism. Rather than focus on the negatives, Monki encourages the audience, through his vibrant, joyous performance and monologue, to look at the bright side of social debates, the never-ending news and the state of the world today. Exploring incredible human and social developments achievements of the modern day, Monki swings and climbs between poles, using the poles and bright elastics to form colourful metre-high graphs. Monki is TENT’s first house maker (2021-24); 60% Banana has been developed in collaboration with TENT and This Is Not a Circus marks its UK premiere
Presented in a double bill with 60% Banana is Ways of being ready, a live encounter between two lifelong friends: mime artist Elliot Dehaspe and acrobat Hendrik Van Maele. They run on 5th October 2023. More information can be found here.
You’re bringing 60% Banana to Jackson’s Lane’s This is not a circus, what can you tell us about your show?
60% Banana is a mix between a sort of conference style lecture and a circus performance. Together with director Bas van Rijnsoever, who studied theatre (mime) in Amsterdam, we developed this unique concept because we felt it was necessary for the message we wanted to tell with this show.
For a few years I have centred my work around the theme of optimism and this was actually the first piece we worked on. It was heavily inspired by the work of Hans Rosling, who in his lifetime gave very energetic and inspiring lectures and wrote an amazing book called Factfulness. In his work, he tried to give people facts about the state of the world to show them what we’re capable of as humankind. 60% Banana is kind of my attempt to do the same. A way of giving hope, I guess.
How does it feel to be performing as part of This is not a circus?
Great! TENT and I go way back so I’m looking forward to a few days of working together and presenting what we love about circus to a new audience. And I’m honoured to get the opportunity to show my work in the UK!
What are you looking forward to most about performing alongside other Dutch companies?
Well it’s always fun to be in a festival with people you know already and have toured with before. So there’s the personal aspect that makes me think it’s going to be an enjoyable time. But I’m also just proud because it makes me realise what we’ve accomplished as a field.
Since TENT started about 12 years ago and I graduated about 9 years, we’ve come such a long way. From being in a youth circus together not even realising that circus could be your profession to actually leading the scene, that’s incredible. And I’m super proud of TENT and thankful for everything they’re doing, including this cool new international accomplishment of theirs.
What inspired you to create 60% Banana?
Well as I mentioned earlier, there was the work of Hans Rosling. Please check him out if you haven’t already. But before that there was already the idea to talk about optimism with my work. After reading Rutger Bregman’s Humankind, I realised that I’ve always wanted to represent some sort of optimism in life but that I’ve also always been sort of ashamed of it. Or I felt like that optimism didn’t have a place in real adult conversations. Let alone serious art! But reading Humankind kind of reminded me of my wish to defend that optimism. And to represent it as something powerful and constructive and not just the sort of passive, lazy, turning a blind eye on everything bad-kind of thing it’s often made out to be. To me the choice to be optimistic is hard work and very necessary so I decided to use that as inspiration for my work.
What do you think will be the biggest challenge with this performance?
Well I would’ve said performing the English version because the piece was originally created in Dutch. But to be honest we’ve already performed the English version a few times in Germany this summer so it’s properly warmed up for London, ha! And for the rest the show is also pretty well ‘broken in’ already so I’m not too worried. I am, however, really excited to get to know a new kind of audience again. Because everywhere you go, and especially in different countries, audiences react and listen differently so I’m super curious to get to experience that with this show in the UK.
What would you say to anyone thinking of booking to see 60% Banana?
Do it! Haha! Please? Hehe no I don’t know. I mean I think it’s a good show and I’m quite sure you’ll see something you haven’t seen before. Maybe even learn something. So I think it’ll be worth your time. And in the worst case you get to see a man in a Banana suit climb a pole and that’s always something you can tell at parties later so I feel it’s a win either way.
Also, I’m performing in a double bill with Hendrik van Maele’s Ways of being ready and not only is that a very fun show, I also feel the combination of our 2 shows creates a very nice balanced evening so that’s another reason to book!
See you there!
