≈ 85 minutes · No intermission
A new(ish) term has become part of the vernacular in the past few years for anyone who isn’t an Indigenous person in Canada: the Settler Canadian. I count among them, and as Settler Canadians, we all have some kind of immigration story; those who came before Canada was a country, and some who docked long after that.
Whether it was inspired by fear or by hope, you can be guaranteed that there was a fairly dramatic tale to accompany the move. Hannah Moscovitch’s retelling of her own family’s true saga of starting over has resounded around the world – this time leaving behind only cheering audiences and four-star reviews.
If your family has an immigration story, I hope this beautiful tale from Halifax inspires you to reflect on what it was that brought you here, and what it was that made you stay.
Playwright’s Notes
The text in this project is the story of my paternal family. When there have been gaps in my knowledge of actual events, I have taken artistic liberties. For instance, I do not know the full story of how my great-grandfather Chaim Moscovitch’s family died in Romania. And because I have often been working with incomplete information, I have discovered over the course of this project that I have parts of my family’s history wrong. In two instances, I decided to leave my inaccuracies in the text. I originally thought that Chaya was older than Chaim; I later found out from a census that they were in fact the same age. And I believed that Sam Moscovitch, my grandfather, was the oldest child in the family. He was in fact the second child: his sister Mary (Michal) Moscovitch was the firstborn.
Songs
Last updated: October 4, 2019
Songs written by Ben Caplan and Christian Barry except where indicated.
Traveller’s Curse (written by Geoff Berner)
You’ve Arrived
Truth Doesn’t Live in a Book
The Happy People (written by Danny Rubenstein)
Minimum Intervals
Plough the Shit
Lullaby
Fledgling
What Love Can Heartbreak Allow
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You can listen to the Old Stock soundtrack on Spotify.
About 2b theatre company
2b is a Halifax-based, internationally-acclaimed theatre company creating works for the regional, national and international stages. Artistic Co-Directors Christian Barry and Anthony Black share a commitment to create, develop and produce new work that is distinguished by innovation in staging, polish in design and virtuosity in performance.
2b would like to thank Andrew Cull, Taryn Kawaja, Kathryn McCormack, Ryan Parker, Vanessa Sabourin and Jeff Schwager for their participation in the workshopping and development of this project.
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2b theatre company
Artistic Co-Directors
Anthony Black and Christian Barry
Managing Director
Colleen MacIsaac
Managing Producer
Karen Gross
Director of Touring
Rebecca Desmarais
Director of Production
Louisa Adamson
Office and Communications Manager
Chelsea Dickie
Development Coordinator
Lianne Perry
Playwright-in-Residence
Shauntay Grant
RBC Emerging Artist-in-Residence
David Walker
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2b engages consultants through Strategic Arts Management. 2b is represented by touring agent Menno Plukker | Menno Plukker Theatre Agent Inc.
2b theatre company receives operating support from the Canada Council for the Arts, Arts Nova Scotia and the City of Halifax.
Thanks to the Nova Scotia Department of Communities, Culture and Heritage for their support of this show and of arts and culture in Nova Scotia.
2b theatre company is a member of the Professional Association of Canadian Theatres and engages, under the terms of the Canadian Theatre Agreement, professional artists who are members of Canadian Actors’ Equity Association.
Notes on Pogroms
Pogrom is a Russian word meaning to wreak havoc and destroy violently. The word is most commonly used to reference brutal attacks on Jewish people between 1881–1921 in Russia and Eastern Europe. These mob attacks wiped out entire Jewish communities. As the pogroms became more frequent, millions of Jews were forced to leave their homes in search of safety. The Holocaust is often referred to as “The Last Pogrom.”
By WWI, Canada’s Jewish population was over 100,000. While Canada was a new home, many Jewish refugees were met with antisemitism and continued marginalization.
Over the next 100 years, Canada would accept thousands of refugees escaping war and persecution from places such as Hungary, Chile, Uganda, Vietnam, and the former Yugoslavia.
Today, Canada is settling refugees from conflict zones including the Middle East and North Africa. Unfortunately, Islamophobia and xenophobic attitudes are still alive and well in Canada making the transition even more difficult for refugees from these areas.
If you would like to dig deeper, here is a list of resources.
Local resources
Ottawa Community Immigrant Services Organization envisions Ottawa as an inclusive city in which all immigrants contribute their gifts, skills, values and culture; strengthening and transforming our community life.
Jewish Family Services of Ottawa offers services which cater to newcomers from various cultural, ethnic and linguistic backgrounds, in Hebrew, Russian, French, Somali, Arabic and Chinese, and is affiliated with Jewish Immigrant Aid Services of Canada, the oldest chartered not-for-profit settlement organization in Canada.
Immigrant Women Services Ottawa is a community-based agency serving immigrant and visible minority women. We create opportunities for women as they integrate into a new society, rebuild their lives free of violence, and achieve their personal goals.
Refugee 613 is an agile and innovative communications hub that informs, connects and inspires people to welcome refugees and build strong communities.
Capital Rainbow Refuge is an Ottawa-based organization committed to providing safe haven to LGBTQ sexual and gender minority refugees fleeing dangerous situations.
Other charities
United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) coordinates UN refugee responses, including support for host countries providing assistance for refugees.
International Organization for Migration (IOM) is an intergovernmental organization which provides services and support to governments and migrants.
Unicef Canada: The United Nations Children’s Fund is a child-focused humanitarian organization operating in 192 countries.
Doctors Without Borders, or Médecins Sans Frontières, operates medical facilities inside countries like Syria and supports more than 100 clinics, health posts and field hospitals in the country.
Oxfam is an international confederation of 17 organizations working around the world to find solutions to poverty and support human rights.
Amnesty International is a non-governmental organization with a focus on human rights.
Canadian Red Cross is part of the international humanitarian organization Red Cross/Red Crescent. The Canadian Red Cross is helping to support the efforts of the Syrian Arab Red Crescent in Syria.
Hannah Moscovitch
Hannah is an acclaimed Canadian playwright. Her work for the stage includes Old Stock: A Refugee Love Story, East of Berlin, The Russian Play, Little One, This is War, Infinity and Bunny. Her plays have been widely produced across Canada, as well as in the United States, Britain, Ireland, Greece, Austria, Germany, Japan, and Australia. She’s won multiple awards for her work, including the Dora Mavor Moore Award for Outstanding New Play, the Toronto Critic’s Award for Best New Canadian Play, both the Scotsman Fringe First and the Herald Angel Awards at the 2017 Edinburgh Fringe Festival, the Trillium Book Award (she is the only playwright to win in the award’s 30-year history), and the prestigious international Windham-Campbell Prize administered by the Beinecke Library at Yale University. She is a playwright-in-residence at Tarragon Theatre in Toronto.
Christian Barry
Christian Barry is a multi-award winning director and theatre-maker from Halifax, Nova Scotia. His productions have toured to prestigious festival and theatres around the world. Christian was nominated for four individual Drama Desk Awards in 2018, including Best Director, and received a nomination for Best Production. Other select awards: Dora Mavor Moore Award for Outstanding Production, three Theatre NS Merritt Awards for Outstanding Direction (nine nominations), two for Outstanding New Play, and two for Outstanding Lighting Design. Christian received the Halifax Mayor’s award for an Emerging Artist, the Urjo Kareda residency at the Tarragon Theatre, and is a winner of the Nova Scotia Masterworks Award – the largest arts prize in the province. He is also a finalist for the 2019 Siminovitch Prize for Directing. Directing credits for 2b: Old Stock: A Refugee Love Story, What a Young Wife Ought to Know, The God that Comes, Homage, Revisited, The Russian Play, The Story of Mr. Wright, East of Berlin, Manners of Dying and Cherry Docs.
Ben Caplan
Ben Caplan is best known as a singer-songwriter and musician. He has released three albums to critical acclaim and actively tours with his band in twenty-eight countries. Caplan’s third studio album, comprised of the music from Old Stock, was released in June 2018. Though Ben Caplan is best known as a songwriter, his first experiences as a performer were in the theatre. He spent many years training, performing, and directing in the theatre before leaving it behind to dedicate his full attention to music. This production is a first return to the theatre after a ten-year hiatus. Ben Caplan makes his home in Halifax along with his partner and frequent artistic collaborator, Taryn Kawaja.
Mary Fay Coady
Mary Fay Coady is an actor and Alexander Technique teacher. Acting credits include: This Is Nowhere, At This Hour (Zuppa Theatre, Robert Merritt Award nominee); Miss Caledonia (Neptune Theatre/Canada/UK Tour); David For Queen (Halifax Theatre for Young People); Tribe of One (Doppler Effect, Robert Merritt Award nominee); Jekyll and Hyde (Misery Love (theatre) Company/Shakespeare by the Sea); Twelfth Night, MacBeth, Love’s Labour’s Lost (Shakespeare by the Sea); The Perfection of Man, Together We Are More (Misery Love (theatre) Company) and In the Backseat (Eastern Front Theatre). Mary Fay’s production of The Perfection of Man won Best Comedy at the Atlantic Fringe Festival in 2013. In 2014, she premiered her original show Tender Beast at Queer Acts and won Best Theatre Actress in The Coast’s Best of Halifax poll. Mary Fay received the Robert Merritt Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Lead in 2018 for her portrayal of Chaya.
Eric Da Costa
Eric is thrilled to be making his 2b theatre company debut with Old Stock. He has been a musician for as many years as he has been a performer, so this opportunity is a very exciting one. Previous credits include: Annie, Honk!, Snow White: the Panto, Peter Pan: the Panto (Drayton Entertainment); Key Change (Globe Theatre Regina); and Hollywood Hits (Stage West Calgary). Huge thanks to Christian, Ben, and the whole Old Stock team. As always, special thanks to family and friends for their constant support. This one is for Grandpa Da Costa.
Jeff Kingsbury
Jeff Kingsbury is a freelance drummer/multi-instrumentalist from Kentville, Nova Scotia. Currently based in Ottawa, he tours regularly with his main project Pony Girl, and with artists like Gianna Lauren, Marie-Clo, Mauno, Scattered Clouds, HIGHS, and Kalle Mattson. Jeff holds a Bachelor of Music degree in Percussion Performance and has performed with Symphony Nova Scotia in Halifax. He also plays regularly with the Ottawa-based Governor General’s Foot Guards Band and the Band of the Ceremonial Guard across Canada and in Bermuda, for a number of high-level Canadian and foreign dignitaries.
Kelsey McNulty
Kelsey McNulty is a human being. She moves, breaths, speaks and loves. When she wakes up in the morning she plays the f*ck out of every instrument within reach.
Louisa Adamson
Louisa is a production manager, event producer & designer, stage manager, collaborator and technician. Working with 2b theatre, Accidental Mechanics Group, Kazan Co-op, Secret Theatre, Zuppa Theatre Co., Eastern Front Theatre, Neptune Theatre and The Atlantic Film Festival. General Manager of Spatz Theatre. Recipient of the Scotland Herald ‘little devil’ award 2014 Edinburgh Fringe and three Robert Merritt Awards. Founder of Production Resources, Co-Founder of The New Science and Board Member of the Legacy Centre. Louisa is based in Halifax and often tours across North America and Europe.
Carly Beamish
Carly completed her Bachelor of Arts with Honours in Costume Studies at Dalhousie University in 2011. Following graduation she was accepted in the Work Study program at The Banff Centre as a Wardrobe Technician. Since then she has taken positions building costumes for various productions at Neptune Theatre, working in wardrobe for Symphony Nova Scotia’s The Nutcracker, running production for the local clothing line Thief & Bandit, as well as designing/building costumes for local dance and small film productions. Carly is thrilled to have the opportunity to work with such an extraordinary team of artists.
Laura Vingoe-Cram
Laura Vingoe-Cram was the 2016–2017 RBC Emerging Artist-in-Residence at 2b theatre company. She is also one of the artistic co-directors of Keep Good (Theatre) Company. She holds a Masters in Directing from the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland and has worked as a director in Glasgow, London, Toronto and Halifax. Her previous directing credits include Constellations by Nick Payne and Mr. Marmalade by Noah Haidle (Keep Good (Theatre) Company); Time of Trouble by Elizabeth Raum (Opera Nova Scotia); Oh Graveyard, You Can’t Hold Me Always by Alan McKendrick (Royal Conservatoire of Scotland); Understudy by Gillian Clark (Atlantic Fringe).
Rory Howson
With over ten years’ experience, Rory is a Sound Designer and Engineer, and a Production and Technical Manager. Rory has worked throughout the U.K. and internationally, working in-house, touring and for festivals. His credits include Sound Design for The Train and A Storm From Paradise with Imitating The Dog (UK/Italy), Sound No1 for Singin’ In The Rain (U.K. Tour with Octagon Theatre); Bolton, Sound No1 for A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Sleeping Beauty with The Watermill Theatre, Production Manager and Sound Engineer for Counting Sheep (International Tour) with Selfconscious Productions and Technical Manager for Canada Hub with Selfconscious Productions as part of Edinburgh Fringe Festival (2016 and 2017).