diff --git a/Cargo.lock b/Cargo.lock
index 683e9e0049..715154d091 100644
--- a/Cargo.lock
+++ b/Cargo.lock
@@ -1720,6 +1720,12 @@ dependencies = [
  "syn-ext",
 ]
 
+[[package]]
+name = "rustc-hash"
+version = "1.1.0"
+source = "registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index"
+checksum = "08d43f7aa6b08d49f382cde6a7982047c3426db949b1424bc4b7ec9ae12c6ce2"
+
 [[package]]
 name = "rustc_version"
 version = "0.4.0"
@@ -1885,6 +1891,7 @@ dependencies = [
  "num-traits",
  "phf",
  "phf_codegen",
+ "rustc-hash",
  "rustpython-ast",
  "rustpython-compiler-core",
  "thiserror",
diff --git a/compiler/parser/Cargo.toml b/compiler/parser/Cargo.toml
index b27bb500e3..e3ce5a39b4 100644
--- a/compiler/parser/Cargo.toml
+++ b/compiler/parser/Cargo.toml
@@ -28,10 +28,11 @@ log = "0.4.16"
 num-bigint = "0.4.3"
 num-traits = "0.2.14"
 phf = "0.10.1"
+rustc-hash = "1.1.0"
+thiserror = "1.0"
 unic-emoji-char = "0.9.0"
 unic-ucd-ident  = "0.9.0"
 unicode_names2 = "0.5.0"
-thiserror = "1.0"
 
 [dev-dependencies]
 insta = "1.14.0"
diff --git a/compiler/parser/src/function.rs b/compiler/parser/src/function.rs
index 28cb44fe24..bc4d5142ea 100644
--- a/compiler/parser/src/function.rs
+++ b/compiler/parser/src/function.rs
@@ -1,7 +1,6 @@
 use crate::ast;
 use crate::error::{LexicalError, LexicalErrorType};
-use ahash::RandomState;
-use std::collections::HashSet;
+use rustc_hash::FxHashSet;
 
 pub struct ArgumentList {
     pub args: Vec<ast::Expr>,
@@ -54,7 +53,8 @@ pub fn parse_args(func_args: Vec<FunctionArgument>) -> Result<ArgumentList, Lexi
     let mut args = vec![];
     let mut keywords = vec![];
 
-    let mut keyword_names = HashSet::with_capacity_and_hasher(func_args.len(), RandomState::new());
+    let mut keyword_names =
+        FxHashSet::with_capacity_and_hasher(func_args.len(), Default::default());
     for (name, value) in func_args {
         match name {
             Some((start, end, name)) => {
diff --git a/compiler/parser/src/string.rs b/compiler/parser/src/string.rs
index 078ac1e27e..838da94c7e 100644
--- a/compiler/parser/src/string.rs
+++ b/compiler/parser/src/string.rs
@@ -14,6 +14,19 @@ pub fn parse_strings(
     let initial_end = values[0].2;
     let initial_kind = (values[0].1 .1 == StringKind::U).then(|| "u".to_owned());
 
+    // Optimization: fast-track the common case of a single string.
+    if matches!(&*values, [(_, (_, StringKind::Normal | StringKind::U), _)]) {
+        let value = values.into_iter().last().unwrap().1 .0;
+        return Ok(Expr::new(
+            initial_start,
+            initial_end,
+            ExprKind::Constant {
+                value: Constant::Str(value),
+                kind: initial_kind,
+            },
+        ));
+    }
+
     // Determine whether the list of values contains any f-strings. (If not, we can return a
     // single Constant at the end, rather than a JoinedStr.)
     let mut has_fstring = false;