Green Bananas was inspired by Ordsall’s industrial heritage. When Salford Docks was one of the biggest ports in Europe, local people were employed  in great numbers on the Docks. There are loads of stories about the dockers, their nick-names and what they got up to, and of course how hard it was being a working docker.  There are lots of storeies of 'knock-off', goods that came into the docks and were then traded by the dockers on a healthy black market. We discovered that there were recipes for using green bananas - they would have been in peoples houses well before they had ripened, thats how quickly they would have come off the docks. In the story the Monkey and the Elephant play out the actions that the dockers and the Docks Police might have played, the former trying to hide them, the latter trying to find them.

Pif-Paf produced ‘Green Bananas’ which was the finale show for the annual OCA Lantern Parade ‘Lighting the Legend”. The show combined developing work within the community and tying in elements of work that Pif-Paf has developed, including TRUNK.

We moved the show from its usual home at Ordsall Hall to Mariners Canal, a fantastic amphitheatre in the heart of Salford Quays. The show involved a 20 piece community choir on stage, an aerialist suspended from a bridge, rafts, a giant elephant, an errant policeman, cheeky dockers, enormous fruit and a water display finale.

The fantastic show involved 22 groups including the OCA kids groups, two schools, Ordsall Acapella Choir and St Clements Congregation. The show was a collaboration between The People of Ordsall, Ordsall Community Arts,  Pif-Paf with Mike Lister of Avanti, Chris Squire of Impossible Theatre, Danpowersproductions, Emilyrose Circus and Ali of the Real Macaws. Music was developed with the choirs by Johnny Woodhams and Daniel Weaver. Fruit lanterns and parade lanterns by Fi Smith and Jo-Foley at OCA.