PRESS REVIEW

Hana's moving story is mesmerizing

Kathryn Greenaway - The Gazette
Saturday, November 24, 2007

Hana's Suitcase is an important play for children to see. It is also a moving and brilliantly staged production to be experienced by grownups, teenagers and youngsters alike.

It is important to see because it tells the true story of Hana Brady, one of 1.5 million children who died during the Holocaust. The play is based on the true story of a Japanese teacher and two inquisitive pupils who, in 2000, inspired by an empty suitcase with the name Hana Brady written on it, launch a quest to discover everything they possibly could about a Jewish girl whose life was cut short at 13 years old and her times.

The Lorraine Kimsa Theatre for Young People production, presented by Geordie Productions, continues at D.B. Clarke Theatre until Dec. 2. Tickets are selling fast, and an extra performance has been added on Friday at 1 p.m.

The play, written by former Montrealer Emil Sher, is based on a book by Canadian radio producer Karen Levine. It is directed, and concisely so, by Stewart Arnott.

Thursday's opening-night audience, boasting more adults than children, sat hushed as the action unfolded against a spare backdrop of moving screens, projected images and a stunning swath of parchment caught in a tangle of criss-crossing ropes. At times it is torn asunder, at times it reconnects - referencing both the painful destruction of life and family by the Nazis and the beauty of intense family bonds.

The narratives unfold in parallel, brushing against each other, but never directly interacting. The determined teacher Fumiko (the bold and elegant Ginger Ruriko Busch) discovers that Hana had a brother, George, who survived the Holocaust and is living in Toronto. Students Maiko (the wonderful Ella Chan) and Akira (the mischievous, irrepressible Dale Yim) are ecstatic. They have a plan: they will learn everything they can from him about Hana, and they will tell every child in Japan what they've learned.

Fumiko reads George's account of Hana's life aloud, and we watch, mesmerized, as young Hana (the poignant Jessica Greenberg) and young George (the talented and convincing Clarence Sponagle) offer us glimpses of their life and their fears and of the world crumbling around them.

Hana's Suitcase does not talk down to the youngsters in the audience. (This play is suitable for children age 8 and older.) The dark is there, and it is very dark, indeed, but it is tempered with courage and hope. Sher keeps the words simple, and the message clear. A wonderful job.

George Brady, his daughter Lara-Hana and Sher attended opening night and answered questions following the performance. He knew and loved Hana. She was real. Flesh and blood. And now we know her story, too.

Hana's Suitcase is at D.B. Clarke Theatre, 1455 de Maisonneuve Blvd. W., until Dec. 2. Tickets remain for today at 4 p.m.; tomorrow at 1 p.m.; Friday at 1 p.m.; Dec. 1 at 4 p.m. and Dec. 2 at 1 p.m. and 4 p.m. For reservations, 514-845-9810 or tickets@geordie.ca. For more information, www.geordie.ca and www.hanassuitcase.ca.

kgreenaway@thegazette.canwest.com

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