Montreal Theatre

Hana’s Suitcase – not to be missed

 

Leave it to Geordie Productions and Young People’s Theatre of Toronto, to bring a difficult subject into the lives of children and do so with sensitivity and dignity. Sometimes it is best to just tell the truth. If you are wondering if a play about a little girl in the Holocaust is too much for a child to take in, it is not. While it deals with horrific truths, it also projects to the future. And that’s what sets this show apart from others on the topic.

Hana’s Suitcase, written by Emil Sher, based on a true story, is about Hana Brady, a young girl who is sent to the death chambers at Auschwitz in 1944. There has also been a documentary and book based on her short life.

Hana Brady

Hana’s suitcase ends up in Japan at an exhibit created by Fumiko Ishioka, of the Tokyo Holocaust Education Resource Center.

The play is beautifully presented and touches the hearts and souls of children and adults alike. It grabs you from the start – opening with the lone suitcase on a table on stage.

It focuses on two children, Maiko (Lisa Troung) and Akira (Jeff Ho), who are determined to find out more about the owner of the suitcase. There is wonderful chemistry between Ho and Troung whose characters are both a little older emotionally by the end of the play.

With the help of Ishioka, emails are sent out to Holocaust centers around the world, phone calls are made, along with a visit to Prague where, finally, progress is made. It turns out, Canada has a big part to play in the drama – Hana’s brother, George, is found to be living in Toronto and is able to provide the information that is sought by the children. The second act is based on the letter that he sent to Ishioka about his and Hana’s life before and during the war.

They learn about her life before the camps – life with her mother and father, her brother George. A life of going to the movies with her friend. A life of skating on the pond with her family. It was the simple, everyday life of a little girl. But…oh, what was to come….

The original drawings, created by Hana in Theresienstadt, the concentration camp she was in prior to Auschwitz, are projected onto the backdrop of the stage, as are pictures of her with her family. The set (Theresa Przybyiski) is simple and very effective, especially the use of a screen that opens and closes up stage, used for entrances and to create a frame around certain actions. Hana walking through that frame at the end of the show truly hits home.

The day I attended there were four schools there and you could have heard a pin drop – there was also plenty of laughter from the students at the comedy provided by Akira.

Director Allen MacInnis has taken great pains to assure that, while truth is paramount with no sugar coating, the story never becomes too heavy to deal with.

Caroline Toal (Hana) and Noah Spitzer (George) put in lovely performances bringing these two children of the Holocaust to life and making the bond between the two of them a memory to cherish.

At the end of the play, Akira addresses the audience. He talks of Peace – a Peace that the children (and adults) in the audience can make happen. The play looks to the future, recognizing that, through our children, we might just find that Peace.

See Hana’s Suitcase. Take your children. This month is the month in which we are asked to Remember. Remember Hana and all the other children who suffered at the hands of the Nazis – one and a half million children.

For the children –

Hana’s Suitcase only runs to November 15 – at the D.B. Clarke Theatre. Run for those tickets –

For tickets: (514) 845-9810

http://geordie.ca/
http://www.hanassuitcase.ca/

Hana’s Suitcase

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