President Richard Nixon eyes a banana with suspicion on a visit to Central America.
In 1988, Ruby Lerner and George King created Bananaland — the critically-acclaimed performance/installation in 7-Stages Theater, Atlanta, Georgia. Bananaland was an indoor Theme Park where the ‘theme’ was the history of American foreign policy in Central America told through the banana trade and its octopoid embodiment, the United Fruit Company.
The program (below) served as a visitors’ guide to Bananaland’s tours, exhibits, videos, cabarets and features such as the restaurant and bar, library, and of course–the gift shop!
Bananaland—the Movie, shot in glorious VHS, is the only remaining audio-visual documentation of the Bananaland experience.
Bananaland used performances, media, and visual art to tell the story of the United Fruit Company’s history in Central America. Many members of Atlanta’s visual arts community collaborated with King and Lerner in creating the Park’s exhibits: Elizabeth Lide, Barbara Schreiber, E.K. Huckaby, Tyler Stallings, Pat Courtney, Tony Loadholt, Mary Margaret Wade, Sheri Moore, Steve Walker, and Normando Ismay–whose epic paintings are seen below.
Banana Train
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Bananaland Reviews
“Banana Picking and Foreign Policy”, Steve Murray; American Theatre, August 1988
