I was lucky enough to accompany my daughter's grade six class on a trip to see HANA'S SUITCASE at the Lorraine Kimsa's Theatre For Young People (the theatre formerly known as YPT). The play was written by Emil Sher, based on the book, "Hana's Suitcase", by Karen Levine.

From the theatre Web site:

It's March 2000. A child's suitcase arrives from Auschwitz at the tiny Children's Holocaust Centre in Tokyo. Painted on the side are a name, Hana Brady, a birthdate and the word "Waisenkind" (Orphan). Spurred on by children at the Centre, the curator embarks on a relentless search from Tokyo to Prague to Toronto to uncover the story of Hana and her fate at the hands of the Nazis.

I had already read the book, and had attended a talk on the subject given in March at the North York Public Library. The talk was given by Karen Levine, the author of the book, Fumiko Ishioka, the Japanese lady who runs the Holocaust Centre in Japan, and Hana's brother, George Brady.

Karen had talked about her life-long interest in the Holocaust, the atrocities committed, and why she wrote the book. Fumiko spoke about desperately wanting to enlighten the students in Japan, who knew absolutely nothing about the Holocaust (a fact which the audience found astonishing), and how Hana became someone they were desperate to know. George, who was there with his daughter, spoke very emotionally about his life with Hana before the Nazis, after their parents were sent away, their time in Terezinstadt and their final journey to Auschwitz. He spoke of how he managed to survive both on luck and initiatve. He now takes comfort in the fact that Hana's dreams of becoming a teacher are being realized, as children all over the world are being taught by her story.

It was an extremely powerful and compelling hour that I still think about.

Back to the play -- it was really well done for a young audience -- very clear, and very accessible. What might have been a complicated story, what with the different locations (Japan/Canada/Czechoslovakia/Germany) and timelines was easy to follow.

They even managed to put some humor in the story which delighted the younger members of the audience. The whole story is told using Fumiko and her students at the Japanese Holocaust Center. In the first act Hana and her family are present, but don't say anything. It's only in the second act, once George's letter to Fumiko is received that the young Hana and her family start to speak. The sets include projections and movie footage of Hana as a young girl, as well as some of the pictures she drew at Terezinstadt. That was very powerful, to see real pictures drawn by a real girl.

It was a very packed house, and a fairly rowdy one at that. But once the play started you could have heard a pin drop.

My only complaint is that they didn't give out programs for the play. Come to think of it I never get programs when I see theatre on a school trip! Why is that?

Don't miss it -- HANA'S SUITCASE runs only until April 27.

If you do miss it, go and read the book!

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