Cylla von Tiedemann
Noah Spitzer and Caroline Toal
HANA’S SUITCASE adapted by Emil Sher from the book by Karen Levine (Young People’s Theatre, 165 Front East). Runs to October 30. $10-$34. 416-862-2222, youngpeoplestheatre.ca. Rating: NNNN
Young People’s Theatre launches its 50th anniversary with a remount of one of its most memorable productions, Hana’s Suitcase, movingly adapted by Emil Sher from Karen Levine’s novel.
An important piece of history wrapped in a fascinating detective story, the narrative begins in 2000 at the Tokyo Holocaust Education Resource Centre, where the young Maiko (Lisa Truong) and Akira (Jeff Ho) and the centre’s curator, Fumiko (Jennifer Villaverde), have received a suitcase belonging to Hana Brady, about whom they know nothing except that she was at Auschwitz and an orphan.
The show’s first half follows their attempts to find out about Hana from various Holocaust museums around the world. They eventually track down her older brother, George, in Toronto, learn her history and become determined to share it with other children.
It’s only in the second half that Hana (Caroline Toal) becomes more than a ghostly figure who flits through the trio’s minds. By means of George’s (Jeff Miller) recollections, we meet Hana, young George (Noah Spitzer) and their parents (Miller and Tracey Ferencz) and discover what happened to the Jewish family under increasingly restrictive Nazi rules.
Though their fate is chilling, the story has hope and warmth, something that Sher (just nominated for a Governor General’s Award for his children’s novel Young Man With Camera) emphasizes over and over.
Under Allen MacInnis’s sensitive direction, the three Japanese investigators become part of Hana’s world, sitting at the family’s dining room table and following them through some of the story’s events. By extension, the children in the audience are also caught up in the tale, educated about and witnesses to tragic events that should never be repeated.
Not all the production’s elements succeed. Ho’s Akira is a source of comedy for the first part of the play, but he develops a grating quality after a while. Toal, who recently took over the role of Hana, has moments of emotion but is still too neutral to make us feel for the work’s central character.
The rest of the cast is fine, including Spitzer’s young George, whose warm feelings for his sister is palpable; Miller, who gives heart to his brief appearances as Brady, father and grown-up son; Ferencz and Thomas Hauff, who skilfully define their various characters; and Villaverde, whose Fumiko, resolved to find answers for her juvenile charges, delivers her initial letter to George with a touching blend of curiosity, determination, sensitivity and apology.
The design is as important as the text, with Teresa Przybylski’s two-level set, lit by Andrea Lundy, creating an implicit contrast between those in power and those who ask for their help. The projections, coordinated by Daniele Guevara, include period photos and drawings Hana made at Theresienstadt concentration camp, where she was interred for two years before being sent to her death at Auschwitz at 13.
Hana’s Suitcase, presenting the Holocaust in large part through the eyes of children, is as topical and poignant today as it was when first produced a decade ago. Whether you’re seeing the show for the first or fifth time, you’re sure to be moved. As Fumiko says, an open heart leads to an open mind.