≈ 85 minutes · Sans entracte
Dernière mise à jour: 4 octobre 2019
Ce programme est seulement disponible en anglais ›
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
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.
Artistes
Hannah Moscovitch est une célèbre dramaturge et autrice de télévision canadienne, dont les œuvres scéniques ont été largement produites au Canada et à l’international. Elle a remporté de nombreuses distinctions pour ses pièces de théâtre, notamment le prestigieux prix littéraire Windham-Campbell et un Prix littéraire du Gouverneur général. Parmi ses œuvres dramatiques récentes, mentionnons : East of Berlin, This is War, Bunny, Sexual Misconduct of the Middles Classes et Old Stock: A Refugee Love Story (cocréation avec Ben Caplan et Christian Barry). À la télévision, Hannah est cocréatrice, productrice générale et autrice principale de Little Bird pour Bell Media et de Rezolution en collaboration avec Jennifer Podemski. Plus récemment, Hannah a été coproductrice générale de Interview With The Vampire pour la chaîne AMC, avec les compagnies de production Gran Via et Dwight Street Book Club.
Laura est codirectrice artistique de Keep Good Theatre Company. Elle a récemment mis en scène Love and Information (The Fountain School of Performing Arts), The Children (Keep Good Theatre Company), Miss N Me (Eastern Front Theatre), Interactions with Art (Halifax Theatre for Young People), Time of Trouble (Opera Nova Scotia) et Constellations (Keep Good Theatre Company). Elle a également passé un an au Festival de Stratford où elle a travaillé comme assistante à la mise en scène sous la direction de Nigel Shawn Williams et comme membre de l’atelier de mise en scène classique de Michael Langham. En 2015, elle a obtenu une maîtrise en mise en scène du Conservatoire royal d’Écosse à Glasgow.
