Chutzpah! Festival

More than an edgy cabaret

Left to right: Shane Baker, Sasha Lurje and Michael Wex in The Last Night at the Cabaret Yitesh (Di Letste Nakht Baym Yitesh), which closes this year’s Chutzpah! Festival Nov. 9-10. (photo by Shendl Copitman)

“The final sketch in the show, ‘The Last Jew in Poland,’ is based on a real 1930s cabaret sketch of the same name that got Ararat, the famous Yiddish cabaret, closed down,” said creator Michael Wex of The Last Night at the Cabaret Yitesh (Di Letste Nakht Baym Yitesh), which plays at the Rothstein Theatre Nov. 9-10 as part of the Chutzpah! Festival.

“The sketch, however, hasn’t survived,” he continued. “Shimon Dzigan (of Dzigan and Shumacher), who was a member of the troupe, describes the general set-up of the piece in his autobiography, but doesn’t give many details, except to say that everybody involved expected to be arrested the next day (and was surprised not to be). I’ve tried to reconstruct something that would have bothered the censors of the 1930s as much as the original.

“‘Di Endekuvne,’ one of the genuine old songs in the show, was actually banned following its first performance,” he said.

The Last Night at the Cabaret Yitesh is set in Poland in the spring of 1938. With only one performance left before the censor’s office closes the cabaret, and with their visas secured to leave the country, the performers decide to put on a show of forbidden material and greatest hits.

The idea for The Last Night at the Cabaret Yitesh came from Andreas Schmitges of Germany’s Yiddish Summer Weimar, who called Wex with a request.

“Since 2019 was the 100th anniversary of the Weimar Republic, Yiddish Summer was planning a commemorative program and Andreas wanted to know if I could put together a Yiddish-language cabaret revue that would reflect the way Yiddish culture absorbed and was influenced by the zeitgeist of the Weimar era,” said Wex.

Michael Wex (photo by Zoe Gemelli)

Wex, who is Canadian, is an internationally recognized expert on Yiddish. He has many nonfiction books to his name, including Born to Kvetch: Yiddish Language and Culture in All of Its Moods, on the history of Yiddish, and Rhapsody in Schmaltz: Yiddish Food and Why We Can’t Stop Eating It. He’s also a translator, novelist, playwright, columnist, public speaker and performer. His creative process involves much research. For Schmitges’ proposed project, Wex first sought out surviving Yiddish cabaret material.

“I dove into scores of books, listened to even more recordings, in search of authentic material that would still resonate with a 21st-century audience,” he said. “Much of the older material just didn’t ‘read’ anymore: there were a lot of jokes about local politics and references to long-forgotten celebrities. There was fairly strong political censorship in interwar Poland, especially in the years following the Nazi takeover of Germany, which means that much of the surviving satirical material is pretty bland. I deliberately sought out lesser-known Yiddish cabaret songs, including at least one that was never recorded.

“My next resort was to see what was going on in non-Yiddish Polish culture at the time. I went through newspapers from the period to try to figure out how much international pop culture was available in 1920s and ’30s Poland and was delighted to find that Hollywood movies that would have played in Vancouver in, say, 1934, were playing in Warsaw at pretty much the same time, and that Louis Armstrong records were on sale in Warsaw record stores. I looked at the pop music charts: the most popular song in Poland in 1928 was ‘Ain’t She Sweet’ translated into Polish. This information widened the range of material that could plausibly be presented as being performed at the time and gave me the licence I needed to adapt and translate some well-known pop songs of the era into Yiddish.”

photo - Patrick Farrell in The Last Night at the Cabaret Yitesh (Di Letste Nakht Baym Yitesh), which is at the Rothstein Theatre Nov. 9-10 — Patrick Farrell in The Last Night at the Cabaret Yitesh (Di Letste Nakht Baym Yitesh), which is at the Rothstein Theatre Nov. 9-10. *(photo by Shendl Copitman)*

Wex wrote some songs and sketches to round out the show, then came up with the storyline that adds context: the performers whose cabaret is about to be closed, but who have ship tickets and visas to leave the country.

“Suddenly, they’re free to perform what they want to, not only what they’re allowed to,” said Wex, who also directs and acts in The Last Night at the Cabaret Yitesh.

The other people involved – Shane Baker (United States; co-director, performer), Patrick Farrell (US/Germany; original music, arrangements, piano, accordion, percussion), Regina Hopfgartner (Austria; vocals), Daniel Kahn (US/Germany; vocals) and Sasha Lurje (Latvia/Germany; vocals) – “are the people for whom the show was written,” Wex said. “It’s like an A-list of contemporary Yiddish performers and I recall telling Andreas that I wouldn’t do the show without them. It was my one diva moment – but I think it worked.”

The current incarnation of the show premièred at the Ashkenaz Festival in Toronto in 2022. It had changed so much from the 2019 Yiddish Summer Weimar production that, Wex said, “Weimar could almost be seen as a workshop.”

For Wex, giving audiences an idea of what 1938 Poland was like is important “because the whole world is looking more like 1938 Poland with every passing day.”

“Arts and culture,” he said, “including but not limited to comedy and music, is really the best way we have of trying to find a common ground from which to understand conflict, stand up to tragedy and, ultimately, seek out ways to mitigate or ameliorate the feelings and attitudes from which such conflicts and their accompanying tragedies have grown. As we see every day, shouting slogans might make us feel good and brave and involved but it does nothing to establish the common ground necessary to arrive at any kind of understanding with our opponents. Arts and culture, comedy and music – they’re all bulwarks against dehumanization.”

The Last Night at the Cabaret Yitesh is in Yiddish with English supertitles. For tickets, go to chutzpahfestival.com – where you’ll find the whole Chutzpah! lineup – or call 604-257-5145. The festival runs Nov. 1-10.

Itamar Erez Trio takes Chutzpah! stage

Itamar Erez will be joined by special guests at the Nov. 5 Chutzpah! Festival concert featuring a dynamic fusion of Middle Eastern, Indian and jazz music. (photo by Diane Smithers)

Due to unforeseen circumstances related to flight restrictions, the Chutzpah! Festival must postpone Yamma Ensemble’s performances, originally scheduled for Nov. 4-5. The ensemble will now be featured during Chutzpah’s spring mini-festival, taking place March 19-23, 2025.

However, the festival has found a vibrant alternative for Nov. 5! The evening will now feature a dynamic fusion of Middle Eastern, Indian and jazz music, with a special performance by the Itamar Erez Trio , joined by guest artists Yonnie Dror (Middle Eastern and Western wind instruments), Kalya Ramu (vocals) and Shruti Ramani (vocals).

Erez, an internationally acclaimed composer, guitarist and pianist, is renowned for his powerful and emotive performances across the globe. Joining him, Dror brings his expertise on diverse wind instruments, Ramu adds her smooth jazz vocals and Ramani infuses a unique blend of Indian and jazz traditions.

Tickets purchased for Yamma Ensemble’s Nov. 5 concert will be valid for this new program. Patrons can also choose to transfer their tickets to any other Chutzpah! Festival event. Ticket holders for the Nov. 4 matinee concert will be contacted by the box office to explore alternative options.

For any questions or ticket inquiries, reach out to the box office at 604-257-5145 or via email at nrt@jccgv.bc.ca.

The Chutzpah! Festival runs Nov. 1-10. For the full lineup and tickets, visit chutzpahfestival.com.

– Courtesy Chutzpah! Festival

Who holds power over you?

Jeremy Goldstein, centre, and volunteer participants in the Newcastle, Australia, performance of Truth to Power Café earlier this month. Members of the Vancouver community will participate in the event here on Nov. 3. (photo by Cassandra Hannagan)

“Who has power over you and what do you want to say to them?” This is the question at the centre of Jeremy Goldstein’s Truth to Power Café, which he will present – with the help of local community members – Nov. 3 at the Rothstein Theatre as part of the Chutzpah! Festival.

“As with all our events, we invite participants to sign up to the project through a combination of open call and personal invites, which we send out in close collaboration with our presenter, who, in this case, is the wonderful Chutzpah! Festival,” explained Goldstein. “We don’t normally confirm the line-up until a week or two before the performance, so it’s a little early to say what people will speak about, but we’re looking for Vancouverites willing to engage in a process of compassionate truth-telling. When we combine this with my own memoir, told through poetry, image, film and music, it makes for fantastic theatre.”

The deadline was earlier this week for local community members of all ages, experiences and backgrounds to apply to be a part of the event. Selected participants will present a short monologue related to the question of who has power over them and what they want to say to that person, whoever it may be, a parent, sibling, boss, politician, neighbour, friend. In a 2022 Total Theatre Magazine article, Goldstein wrote, “Participants’ voices are heard and understood through the political and philosophical beliefs of Harold Pinter and his Hackney Gang.”

“Nobel Prize-winning playwright Harold Pinter wrote about power and occupation. His inner circle, the Hackney Gang, were a group of working-class lads who met in 1947,” Goldstein explained to the Independent. “They knocked about London’s East End in the 1950s, where they took on the bullies and fought with antisemitic fascists. The gang included my late father, Mick Goldstein, and the late poet/actor Henry Woolf, who became known as the ‘King of the Avant Garde,’ and with whom I co-created the show directed by Jen Heyes.

“For 60 years, the Hackney Gang held firm in their belief of an independent media and in speaking their truth to power,” said Goldstein. “They remained on the side of the occupied and the disempowered and their allies. These are the people we invite to appear in the show with me.

“Ultimately,” he added, “the show has become a love letter to the memory of my father Mick, and his friends of 60 years, Henry Woolf and Harold Pinter.”

Goldstein started Truth to Power Café eight years ago.

“Back in 2016, I was presenting New York’s queen of the underground and former Andy Warhol Factory superstar Penny Arcade at Soho Theatre in London,” he said. “I wanted to stage a pre-show event so I opened up my address book and invited 24 Londoners to respond to the question, ‘Who has power over you, and what do you want to say to them?’ Over four nights, I saw the theatre come alive with raw and compassionate truth-telling and was compelled to make a show out of it.”

But there were unexpected challenges.

photo - Jeremy Goldstein brings his Truth to Power Café to the Chutzpah! Festival Nov. 3 — Jeremy Goldstein brings his Truth to Power Café to the Chutzpah! Festival Nov. 3. (photo by Cassandra Hannagan)

“Two weeks before the first night, my face became numb and the doctors told me I had a stage 4 lymphoma,” shared Goldstein. “At the time, I didn’t know if I would live, let alone make it to the Soho Theatre performances. Eighteen months and a stem cell transplant later, I was cured and premièred the show at Festival 18, the arts and culture program for the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games in Australia.

“I’ve been on the road with it ever since, playing everywhere from poor working-class mining communities in the north of England to remote townships in the Australian outback to Queer Zagreb in Croatia and on to Lincoln Centre in New York – Truth to Power Café is a genuine global hit.”

Since it began, the show has had some 800 diverse participants taking part in eight countries.

“Some participants are established writers, artists and community activists, whereas others have never spoken up in public before, let alone centre-stage, under lights in their local theatre, sharing intensely personal life stories in front of their friends and family,” said Goldstein. “I’ve become a vessel through which these stories are told. It’s a very privileged position to be in and I don’t take it for granted. I want people taking part to have a positive experience, so I’m very aware of people’s well-being as part of the process leading up to each performance, and into the show itself. I check in with everyone after the show. Many of our participants have become my friends.”

He is well aware of how confronting power can put a person in a vulnerable position.

“The basic rule in life is don’t rock the boat or to tell a white lie to keep the peace, so whether you choose to speak from the personal, political, professional or even all three, speaking truth to power can put you at risk,” he said. “We, therefore, make the show in a safe space or, in the words of one our recent participants, Ed Wright: ‘To talk truth to power, to find our own power, we need to be able to feel safe. To have our power returned to us when it has gone missing, we need to know we have been listened to.’”

The question being asked – “Who has power over you and what do you want to say to them?” – is meant to challenge ideas of power and give voice to people who don’t normally have a chance to speak out, said Goldstein.

“People from marginalized communities tend to talk about progressive change, whereas those with privilege and power want to maintain the status quo and have more power,” he said. “We live in the post-truth age of the demagogue, where fake news is the new norm. In politics, the oppressed often have to fight for the right to simply say what they are experiencing and, in personal relationships, that artificial barrier is also in place. If you have an approach to allowing the conversation to happen, the chances of change occurring are much higher.”

The Nov. 3 Chutzpah! show is Truth to Power Café’s Canadian première and its 60th performance.

“It’s extremely rare to have two significant milestones back-to-back,” said Goldstein, “so I can’t wait to celebrate this with the good people of Vancouver.”

Chutzpah! runs Nov. 1-10. For the full lineup and tickets, visit chutzpahfestival.com or call 604-257-5145.

New this year for the Chutzpah! Festival: Jewish Community Centre of Greater Vancouver members receive discounted ticket prices and concession purchases at the theatre. Select Student/Senior/JCC Member tickets and ChutzPacks and bring your membership card to the theatre.

Space for love amid messy

Chutzpah! resident artists Livona Ellis, left, and Rebecca Margolick in their debut collaborative piece, Fortress, which is part of a double bill at the Dance Centre next month. (photo by Benjamin Peralta)

Strength, vulnerability, love, pain, joy, healing, creation. Two world premières at this year’s Chutzpah! Festival explore these and other aspects of what it means to be human. The Nov. 8-9 double bill of Fortress and About Time are being presented with the festival’s community partner, the Dance Centre.

Fortress is the debut collaborative piece by Chutzpah! resident artists Rebecca Margolick and Livona Ellis. In it, the dancers and choreographers contemplate femininity, what it means to be strong, what it means to be vulnerable and the balance between the two.

“I draw strength from the resilience and emotional intelligence of the women in my life. My mom, Mary-Louise Albert, and my grandmothers, Phyllis Margolick and June Albert, are key inspirations,” Margolick told the Independent. “I also think of my great-great-grandmother, Rivka Margolick, who fled the pogroms in Latvia in the late 1800s with her nine children. She died a week after arriving in Montreal, but her bravery continues to inspire me. I often think about how that one lucky and bold move to escape and to come to Canada has led to me here, now.”

Margolick’s heritage infuses her creative life.

“Jewish culture encourages asking questions and exploring ideas from multiple perspectives, which mirrors my creative process,” she explained. “I constantly question the work I’m building, not out of doubt, but as a way to deepen and refine it. This openness to possibilities, paired with a focus on collaborative exploration, is something I see as a direct reflection of my Jewish values, and one that I connect to strongly in my culture, my work, and the overall way I operate in the world.”

Born and raised in British Columbia, Margolick recently returned to Vancouver.

“I officially moved back in July, but I had been coming back here more often since the pandemic,” she said. “I was based in New York City for 14 years. For the last 18 months, I was nomadic and traveling around for work without a home base. I chose to settle back in Vancouver to be closer to family, have better access to nature, have a calmer lifestyle, and to strengthen the community and close friendships I have here.”

Margolick’s choreographic work has been presented around the world, and she has danced with various artists and companies, including Sidra Bell Dance New York from 2012 to 2016. She joined Andrea Peña & Artists this year.

Ellis has performed with several groups, including 11 seasons with Ballet BC, and has create works for many companies. She received the Vancouver Mayor’s Arts Award for Emerging Artist in 2017 and the inaugural Louise Bentall Award for Emerging Choreographer in 2023. She is also a dance educator.

The Jewish Independent first wrote about Fortress and Margolick and Ellis’s collaboration in 2021 (jewishindependent.ca/four-solos-and-a-duet).

“It has almost completely changed!” said Margolick of the work’s evolution since then. “We took some base movement ideas from the original work, for example, rocking, and then extrapolated on it. Our themes and original inspiration for the work have remained similar. We’ve let ideas breathe more, creating space for simplicity to stretch, and allowing the work to feel more spacious and exploratory.”

Margolick described how she and Ellis work together.

“Like a lot of creative processes, it feels like we’re building a puzzle,” she said. “We start with throwing out a bunch of ideas (puzzle pieces), trying them out, placing them next to other ideas, and seeing how they work together. Some ideas fit, while some don’t. It’s a constant process of refining, editing and reworking until the picture becomes clear. We aim to craft an arc that makes sense but still leaves room for mystery and space for the audience to create their own experience.”

As for her own journey with femininity, strength and vulnerability, Margolick shared, “Over time, I’ve grown more comfortable in my own skin, learning to embrace my imperfections and express my emotions more freely. I’ve come to understand that there is great power in vulnerability. As I’ve matured, I’ve also leaned into dialectical and critical thinking, which has helped me appreciate the complexity of femininity. Working on Fortress has reinforced for me that true strength lies in allowing space for tenderness and care, even when it feels messy.”

***

About Time choreographer Idan Cohen has also come to better understand messiness – the countless disparate ideas, feelings and events that co-exist at any given moment – in his exploration of time via Philip Glass’s solo piano études.

“It’s been very challenging to create throughout this traumatic year,” he acknowledged. “It feels like, since Oct. 7, one faces two major options: there are those who break and those who assemble, constructing something out of the pain and confusion. I chose to create About Time as a commentary on the ways we consume information, form opinions and lose empathy. Time goes on whether we want it to or not. The question is, with what do we fill that space, the time we are given. My time is filled with both love and pain. I break, but I also feel the urge to create, provoke thought and promote healing.”

Born and raised in Israel, but now an established Vancouverite, Cohen’s career includes seven seasons with Kibbutz Contemporary Dance Company and various international tours, residencies and scholarships. A multiple-awarding-winning performer and choreographer/director, he is founder and artistic director of Ne.Sans Opera & Dance.

The original idea to create a piece to Glass’s études came from Cohen’s colleague and friend, conductor and pianist Leslie Dala, back in 2020.

photo - Will Jessup in Idan Cohen’s About Time, an exploration of time through Philip Glass’s solo piano études. In this year’s Chutzpah! Festival, Jessup and Benjamin DeFaria perform the piece with pianist Leslie Dala at the Dance Centre Nov. 8-9 — Will Jessup in Idan Cohen’s About Time, an exploration of time through Philip Glass’s solo piano études. In this year’s Chutzpah! Festival, Jessup and Benjamin DeFaria perform the piece with pianist Leslie Dala at the Dance Centre Nov. 8-9. *(photo by Chris Randle)*

“Even now, between other projects, I find myself continually returning to Glass’s études,” said Cohen. “I have to understand the core of the music. It is more than just the composer’s intention – it’s about tracking and studying their identity, which makes them a cultural phenomenon, that deep essence through which they form a perspective, their cultural DNA. Glass is such a fascinating artist, and I have a tendency to obsess and study things over time – it is a friendship. I am immersed in Glass’s unique understanding and appreciation of time, and in the way he engages with philosophies and perspectives.”

Cohen has learned a few things from this immersion. In particular, he said, “In order to survive, I had to remind myself that no timeline is more important than another – joy and pleasure exist in any given moment, alongside tragedy, weakness and pain. There are multiple realities, and the worst atrocities happen simultaneously with moments of celebration and joy.”

While the music is the foremost inspiration, Cohen said it serves as “the gateway through which a creative world is assembled.”

“In a creative process,” he said, “I need to find my interpretation of the music, to discover where the core connection lies between the music and myself. It is an act of artistic communication – between artists, between Glass and me, the dancers, Leslie Dala, the designers and everyone involved. I find the act of art-making to be an important practice in both creation and healing.”

Dala will perform Glass’s études live during About Time, which features dancers Will Jessup and Benjamin DeFaria.

To the community, “who have endured unbearable pain this year,” Cohen said, “I dedicate every movement and every step of this creation to you, sending you strength and love. I am praying for better times to come.”

***

The Fortress and About Time double bill will take place at Scotiabank Dance Centre. For the full Chutzpah! Festival lineup and tickets, visit chutzpahfestival.com.

Unique in style, rich in culture

Kommuna Lux (photo by Maria Dmytrenko)

[Editor’s Note: Due to unforeseen circumstances related to flight restrictions, the Chutzpah! Festival must postpone Yamma Ensemble’s performances to March. However, the festival has found a vibrant alternative for Nov. 5: Itamar Erez Trio and special guests. Click here for more.]

Original music that honours the culture and traditions of its creators. Unique songs that you’d have to travel thousands of kilometres to see and hear live. Or, you could buy tickets to Chutzpah! The Lisa Nemetz Festival of International Jewish Performing Arts, which runs Nov. 1-10.

Kommuna Lux from Ukraine brings its unique “Odesa Gangsta Folk” – which they describe as “thrilling klezmer music and common gangster folk songs from their hometown, all with a dose of rocket fuel” – to Vancouver to open the festival Nov. 2, 7 p.m., at the Pearl. The event is presented in partnership with Caravan World Rhythms. The group will also travel to Victoria, for a Nov. 1 show at the Edelweiss Club.

Kommuna Lux’s music is specific to their part of the world, Volodymyr Gitin (clarinet) told the Independent.

“What I like most about this style is the special energy that charges both us and our listeners,” he said. “But I also really like how diverse our music is, because it includes almost everything related to the cultural heritage of Odesa.”

Similarly, Yamma Ensemble from Israel brings its unique heritage-rich music to Chutzpah! – on Nov. 5, 7 p.m., at Rothstein Theatre. They also give an intergenerational matinee performance Nov. 4, geared to school and seniors groups, in which they will “include as many explanations as possible about the ancient musical instruments, about the Jewish communities around the world, about the songs,” lead vocalist Talya G.A Solan told the Independent.

“We wish to celebrate and enjoy the richness and the immense beauty of the Jewish culture and our origins,” she said. “We mainly bring out the mix of Jewish cultures, the mix of our different backgrounds and the fact that we came together into an organic and whole music ensemble…. So, in our music, you can hear the music of Spanish Jews from Thessaloniki and Spanish Jews from Turkey, the singing of psalms by the Jews in Iraq and the singing of religious poems from Yemen.”

photo - Yamma Ensemble — Yamma Ensemble *(photo by Zohar Ron)*

On the group’s website, they note that Yamma means “toward the sea” in Hebrew and “mother” in Arabic.

“The connection between Hebrew and Arabic is not only a connection between two very similar Semitic languages, but also a connection between the countries of origin of the Jews who lived in Arab countries and their descendants, who were born here and grew up in Israel,” explained Solan. “Our musical heritage, like our origins, is connected to the Jewish communities in the Middle East who immigrated to Israel with the language they spoke, the Arabic language in its many dialects (Yemeni, Iraqi, Moroccan, etc.). They came to Israel and had to speak the local language – Hebrew.”

Hebrew is a central element of the ensemble’s repertoire, directly tied to the members’ identity as Israeli musicians.

“Hebrew is our mother tongue, the language we were born into and the language in which we dream and communicate,” said Solan. “It is an ancient, gorgeous and special language that became extinct and was revived in the 20th century. We try to perform mostly in Hebrew. We mix between our own original creations (always Hebrew) and traditional music (Sephardic, Yemenite).

“There is no Israeli music group that performs out of Israel and has been active for a long time [mainly] performing Hebrew music,” she continued. “This fact is odd and crazy, since Hebrew is the spoken language in Israel, but none of the Israeli musicians active abroad focus on this magnetizing and beautiful ancient language.

“One of the reasons that Yamma Ensemble’s YouTube channel is the most viewed channel of Hebrew music for foreign audiences,” she said, is “the accessibility of Hebrew for foreign audiences who do not speak it. We translate all the songs, so people can watch them with English translation. We receive daily messages from all over the world from people who write us that they learn Hebrew with the songs, that they get closer to their Judaism through the songs. It feels like a serious task that we didn’t ask to take on, and it happened naturally.”

Yamma Ensemble has four albums – Yamma (2011), Basket Full of Stars (2017), Rose of the Winds (2020) and To Awaken Love (2023) – the last of which comprises entirely original music, inspired by traditional sounds, said Solan.

The group is working on an album of psalms. Their performance of Psalm 104 is “the most viewed Jewish chant on YouTube, [in the] category of live and traditional music,” she said. “It has already passed 10 million views! So, we need to record this psalms album.”

However, to produce a recording is an expensive undertaking, and that’s one thing when the music will have a relatively large market. For music “that is not commercial and does not carry profits or compensation, there must be a budgetary basis or significant support,” said Solan. People who are interested may support the psalms project via the ensemble’s website, yammaensemble.com.

Coincidentally, Kommuna Lux’s original name also has to do with the financial side of the music business.

“Dengi Vpered means ‘Money Forward’ or ‘Cash in Advance,’” explained Gitin. “This name appeared before I was in the group. One day, the guys didn’t get paid for a performance and, since then, they started taking money in advance. At the same time, they named the group that way, with a bit of Odesa humour, and also so that it would be immediately clear how they do business.

“After six incredible years of being together, it so happened that our vocalist decided to go his own way and we needed to figure out how and with whom to continue our journey. Also, for various reasons, we felt that it was necessary to change the name…. So, first we found [singer] Bagrat [Tsurkan], who quickly became a valuable member of our team, and then the name itself came along, which resonated with us very much.

“Kommuna Lux has several meanings,” he said. “One of them is ‘the Commune,’ which is united by the common idea of bringing light and joy to people. But ‘Kommuna’ can also mean a communal apartment in which several families live. In such apartments, there is a shared kitchen and sometimes a bathroom, and people need to agree with each other to live in peace and harmony. And ‘Lux’ in this case has another meaning, as a sign of the quality of how we look and sound on stage, the quality of the luxury level.”

Gitin joined the band, which has one album to date (OdesaFM), in 2014.

“I was attracted by the idea of reviving Odesa songs and Jewish folklore in a new, modern way,” he said. “Everything was created and performed with great enthusiasm and a desire to share positive emotions with people. We felt that we were doing something special.”

And they do something extra special in some of their performances – they raise money for Ukrainians affected by the ongoing war with Russia.

“Mostly, we collect money for 110 Brigade, they always need different vehicles for different goals,” said Gitin. “Also, during our last tour, we [participated in a] joint initiative of Rotary E-Club of Ukraine to buy beds for burn victims, for a hospital in the city of Kramatorsk in Donetsk region.

“Our whole life is connected with our home and we feel that every Ukrainian joined to help our people,” he said. “So, our reasons are the same, we can’t just watch, we feel that we should do what we can.”

He added, “Music is very important, especially in such periods, because, through it, it is possible to express the whole spectrum of feelings. Music can raise the spirit, unite everyone around a common idea, and also help people experience deep feelings, especially when they lose loved ones.”

Rounding out the musical offerings at Chutzpah! this year is New Orleans multi-instrumentalist Mark Rubin, “offering Southern Americana from a Jewish, socially conscious point-of-view.” Jacob Samuel headlines a comedy night hosted by Kyle Berger, and Jeremy Goldstein’s Truth to Power Café includes stories from Vancouverites in response to the question, “Who has power over you and what do you want to say to them?” A dance double bill features Fortress (Rebecca Margolick and Livona Ellis) and About Time (Ne.Sans Opera & Dance, Idan Cohen). Canadian Yiddishist Michael Wex brings The Last Night at the Cabaret Yitesh (di letste nakht baym yitesh) to the festival, and the Vancouver Jewish Film Festival and Chutzpah! co-present the screening of Gimpel the Fool Returns to Poland by Nephesh Theatre artistic director Howard Rypp, which “follows the show’s journey throughout different towns of Poland, while tracing [Gimpel writer Isaac Bashevis] Singer’s escape from the Holocaust, finally finding refuge in the USA.”

For tickets to any of the festival events, visit chutzpahfestival.com or call 604-257-5145.

Ventanas return to city

Tamar Ilana & Ventanas play at the Rothstein Theatre Feb. 3. (photo by Ali Wasti)

The Chutzpah! Festival and Caravan World Rhythms co-present Tamar Ilana & Ventanas on Feb. 3, 8 p.m., at the Rothstein Theatre. Founded in 2011, Ventanas interweaves flamenco, Sephardi and Balkan music and dance. They have released three albums and have toured extensively throughout North America. They have been nominated for four Canadian Folk Music Awards.

The six-piece Toronto-based music ensemble is fronted by vocalist and dancer Tamar Ilana. They perform in more than 20 languages, including Ladino, Spanish, Bulgarian, Macedonian, Hebrew, French, Romani and Arabic, drawing inspiration from worldwide themes such as migration and the questioning of one’s identity.

Ilana is a powerful and versatile Canadian singer and flamenco dancer of mixed descent, renowned for her ability to sing in multiple languages and collaborate with various artistic communities from around the world. Her childhood was spent gathering songs from small villages on the edge of the Mediterranean and dancing flamenco. (For more, see jewishindependent.ca/ventanas-come-to-b-c and jewishindependent.ca/ventanas-to-play-at-folk-fest.)

Ventanas’ band members are from across the globe and, together, in true Canadian fashion, they and Ilana intertwine their musical cultures to create an all-encompassing world of their own in which they lead audiences down the less-traveled paths of the Mediterranean, mixing in contemporary interpretations of ancient ballads, original compositions and new choreographies, inviting audiences of all backgrounds into their music.

For tickets to Tamar Ilana & Ventanas ($40 regular, $34 senior/student), visit chutzpahfestival.com or call 604-257-5145.

– Courtesy Chutzpah! Festival

Supported by paper, by fragility

Inbal Ben Haim in Pli, which will be at the Vancouver Playhouse Feb. 2-3. (photo by Loic Nys)

Imagine flying through the air on … paper?! That’s just what the circus artists do in Pli, which is being co-presented by the PuSh and Chutzpah! festivals Feb. 2-3 at the Vancouver Playhouse.

The show’s concept came from Israeli French circus artist Inbal Ben Haim, who performs the work with Domitille Martin and Alvaro Valdes. Ben Haim has always been attracted to working with various materials. In her first show, Racine(s), which means “root(s)” in French, soil was used as “poetic matter to talk about the connection of human beings with the earth and [their] homeland,” Ben Haim told the Independent. Racine(s) premièred in 2018.

“But my story of paper started from a workshop I had while I was in CNAC [Centre national des arts du cirque], with the artist Johann Le Guillem. In the point of view of Johann, circus is a ‘minor practice’ – a practice that has never been made, that no one’s practising anymore, or that it is very rare. He asked us to prepare a small presentation … and I wanted to work with paper, to create a huge bird of paper and to fly on it. Well, I didn’t manage to do it, but I started sculpting the paper and made a paper puppet, which I suspended in the air and climbed on it.”

“A little bit later,” she continued, “I met Alexis Mérat, who is a paper artist [and who used to perform in Pli], and we figured out we do the same gesture with our hand – he is crumpling, and I am hanging from my rope. So, we wanted to try to do the two actions at the same time – to crumple and suspend. We were sure that the paper would break, but when we discovered that hanging from paper was possible, it inspired us a lot in the poetical point of view of this image – putting your body, your weight, your life, on something so fragile as paper. In a way, it’s a human action that we all do sometimes. It seemed to us that we absolutely needed to continue this research.”

As they did, Ben Haim said it became clear that they had to involve Martin, who she knew from Racine(s). Martin is not only a performer but a scenographer and one of Martin’s specialties is creating a set that is also circus apparatus, said Ben Haim. “This is how we started to work together.”

Ben Haim studied both visual arts and physical practice, and the visual circuses she creates are a melding of those two passions.

“I was always a hyperactive child,” she said. “I did sports, athletics and martial arts since [I was] very young. But, when I discovered circus practice, and especially aerial acrobatics, I found a space of quiet, of high intensity in a calm place. I found a different relation to gravity and to the body, and also a practice that was very physical but at the same time poetic and interior. It touched me deeply.”

Ben Haim said she wasn’t scared the first time she climbed a rope or was suspended from a trapeze. “I was used to climbing on very high places – trees, mountains, and so on,” she explained. “My parents tell that when I was 1 year old, they found me one day up on a ladder – which means I learned how to climb before I knew how to walk.”

It’s only as she has worked longer in the profession that she has felt more fear. “I get to be more aware of all the risks we take, not only in the acrobatic act but in the hanging and rigging – this is where most of the accidents happened,” she said. “I get to be more and more careful with age and with experience.”

Ben Haim moved to France in 2011 to pursue her art and training, first at Piste d’Azur: Centre régional des arts du cirque PACA, then the CNAC de Châlons-en-Champagne, from which she graduated in 2017. Her bio also notes that “she developed a teaching method for therapeutic circus and worked in various contexts in Israel and France. By blending circus, dance, theatre, improvisation and visual arts, Ben Haim has created her own form of poetic expression. Largely inspired by the human bond made possible by the stage, the ring and the street, she aims to create strong connections between the audience and the artist, the intimate and the spectacular, the earth and air, and the here and there.”

This interplay of connections is evident in Pli and how Ben Haim, Martin and Mérat worked together.

“In the moment we discovered that hanging and climbing on paper was possible, we dove into this research, and we wanted to discover and understand all the possible ways to do that,” said Ben Haim. “We did a lot of experiments which are visual and physical, but also mechanical. Alexis is an engineer, so he held all this point of view that finally makes all that we do quite safe.

“We were creating nine apparatus of hanging on paper in different ways, and we observed how the body changed the paper,” she continued. “We created also many scenographies from paper in which I entered to transform them, getting in a different relationship with the matter…. I metamorphose it, and then it holds me differently – it becomes a duet with lots of listening and care.

“In parallel, we were creating costumes from paper, we made lots of sound work, [registering] the different sonorities of paper to compose the music and doing … research on the possibilities of lighting paper on stage. We can say that the paper guided us in this journey.”

Jessica Mann Gutteridge, artistic managing director of the Chutzpah! Festival, was drawn to Pli right away when she was introduced to it by the PuSh Festival, whose director of programming is Gabrielle Martin.

“Chutzpah! and the PuSh Festival share many common interests in terms of the kind of work we present and have been looking for opportunities to work together,” said Gutteridge. “PuSh knows that Chutzpah! has a particular interest in presenting Israeli artists, as well as audiences who are interested in dance and innovative performance, so this project was an excellent opportunity for us to join forces and co-present.”

The 2023 Chutzpah! Festival, which took place just last month, “included a project that centred on long sheets of paper used to create visual artworks on scrolls, with professional and community artists exploring the centuries-old art form of crankies,” said Gutteridge. “This resonance with Inbal’s work creates a lovely bridge to our winter Chutzpah! PLUS collaboration with the PuSh Festival.” (Crankies are a centuries-old artform in which an illustrated scroll is wound on two spools set in a viewing window.)

Chutzpah! took place as the Israel-Hamas war continued, and the probability is that the war will still be going on when PuSh begins Jan. 18.

“We can say that art is not saving anyone’s life in times of war, so what is its power in front of violence?” responded Ben Haim when asked the role of the arts, even in times of conflict.

“I believe that art has the power to bypass the mind and touch beyond it – the heart, the emotions, the curiosity, our sense of humanity,” she said. “Art has the chance to connect us – above the definitions and identities, as nationality, history and politics. And can connect us into something bigger than what we think we are, something which is common.”

She said, “As someone who searches more for solutions than accusations in any conflict (personal or geopolitical), I search the space of connection moreover than the reasons of separation. I believe that that’s the only way we can find peaceful and respectful solutions for all sides. I feel the need of being able to deeply see each other, human beings, beyond the grief, the fear, the sadness. I think art offers us this kind of space, where we can feel all humans, and experience ourselves as a connected grid. It is not the ‘solution,’ but I think it’s a good starting point, especially in our days.”

Having lived for many years in Israel, in a region of recurring conflict, Ben Haim said, “I know how persistent experiences of fear, pain, loss and distress make us become less and less sensitive, and more into defensive and violence. It happens in order to protect ourselves from those difficult experiences, and it is common for all sides. But, in the long run, it is devastating, for ourselves and for our partners.

“Even in the middle of a storm of violence, I think art helps us keep a space of sensibility in this crazy world,” she said. “An untouched place where we can simply be, observe, experience, feel. To marvel in front of some piece of beauty, beside the destruction. Having, for short moments, a sense of hope. To feel the strength in the subtlety, in vulnerability, the power in the creative act, in being alive. And this sensibility can be a window of connection. A thread to follow slowly and gently.”

Pli is 60 minutes with no intermission and the teaser can be viewed on YouTube or Vimeo. It is recommended for ages 11+. For tickets to the Feb. 2-3 shows at the Playhouse (in-person and livestream), visit pushfestival.ca.

Art that makes people think

Domitille Martin in Pli, part of the PuSh International Performing Arts Festival, which runs Jan. 18 to Feb. 4. (photo by Lucie Brosset)

PuSh International Performing Arts Festival returns to Vancouver Jan. 18-Feb. 4. The mid-winter event that delivers innovative, contemporary works asks the questions, “Can a live art festival be a ritual for social change? A cultural strategy? A means to rethink history while imagining possible futures?” Participating artists include Jewish community members and a production presented with Chutzpah! Festival.

Vancouver’s Vanessa Goodman (Action at a Distance) is co-creator with Tangaj Collective (Simona Deaconescu, from Romania, and Gaby Saranouffi, from Madagascar) of BLOT, Body Line of Thought: “Our bodies are strong and fragile. BLOT redefines how we see our physical selves and their relationship to the world. In a stark set reminiscent of a science lab, two dancers observe the intricacies of the body and using salt, microbiome and physiology demonstrate how interconnected we truly are.”

BLOT will be presented Jan. 22-23, 7:30 p.m., at Left of Main, with a post-show talkback after the Jan. 22 production.

PuSh, with SFU Woodward’s Cultural Programs & Touchstone Theatre, presents Toronto-based theatre company Human Cargo’s The Runner, Jan. 24-26, 7:30 p.m., at SFU Goldcorp Centre for the Arts. The play description reads: “When Jacob, an Orthodox Jew, makes a split-second decision of who to help, his world comes crashing down. Urgent, visceral and complex, The Runner invites us into a nuanced exploration of our shared humanity and the value of kindness.”

In Pli, by France’s Les Nouvelles Subsistances (Inbal Ben Haim, Domitille Martin and Alexis Mérat), “paper becomes a playground. This visually stunning, philosophical work considers risk and transformation, as told through a circus artist moving through a set made entirely of paper – like a vast, changing sculpture. The relationship between body and paper offers a new conversation about the relationship between strength and vulnerability.”

Presented with Chutzpah! Festival, the circus/dance Pli runs Feb. 2-3, 7:30 p.m., at Vancouver Playhouse and Feb. 2-4 online.

In all, PuSh features 17 original works from 15 countries, including four world premières and seven Canadian debuts. The works presented offer personal accounts of resistance and acts of vulnerability, and push us to examine our relationship to themes such as migration, displacement, labour, injustice and artificial intelligence.

Events include Club PuSh, a casual atmosphere where people can connect with artists and party with fellow festival-goers; the PuSh Industry Series, which, in partnership with Talking Stick, stimulates dialogue with attendees during the second week of the festival; youth programming for participants aged 16 to 24; and, in partnership with Playwrights Theatre Centre, free artistic consultations with visiting dramaturgs representing diverse artistic points of view and cultural contexts.

Tickets for PuSh range from $16.75 to $39, with a top-tier seating option of $69 for Pli at the Playhouse, and PuSh passes for people who want to see multiple shows. To buy tickets, visit pushfestival.ca or call the festival audience services line at 604-449-6000.

– Courtesy PuSh International Performing Arts Festival

The opposite of death is love

Hadar Galron in Whistle, which is at the Firehall Arts Centre Nov. 14-15, as part of the Chutzpah! Festival. (photo by Nathan Yakobovitch)

“As a child I was never hugged or kissed; I think my parents did not even see me. I wrote this story to stop being an invisible child,” Israeli author Ya’akov Buchan has said about Whistle: My Mother was Mengele’s Secretary.

The play Whistle is part of this year’s Chutzpah! Festival, with performances Nov. 14 and 15 at the Firehall Arts Centre. Writer, director and actor Hadar Galron, who adapted Buchan’s story for the stage, stars in the monodrama.

“Buchan was born to two Auschwitz survivors, and began writing after he was injured in the Yom Kippur War. He’s written 18 books – four concerning the Holocaust – but he felt that people don’t read so much anymore, and that he wanted to write a play about second generation Holocaust survivors,” explained Galron in an interview with the Independent. “Dramatic writing and prose are very different techniques, and Ya’akov sent me about 30 pages of interesting and well-written content, but not dramatic enough for stage.

“The first meeting with him was out of respect – I thought I’d give him a few tips and let him take it from there,” she continued. “I remember the turning point: I said, ‘You mention twice in these pages the name Mengele. You can’t just throw in a name like that, it needs to have some dramatic payoff, or not to be mentioned at all.’ Ya’akov said nothing, just nodded. And, suddenly, I thought that maybe Mengele had tortured one of his parents. ‘Were any of your parents somehow … (how to say this?!) … connected to Mengele?’ Ya’akov looked me squarely in the eye and said, quietly, ‘My mother was Mengele’s secretary.’ That was when I knew I would take the task, and help him tell his story and the story of the second generation.”

In recent years, Galron has been working on several plays that deal with the lasting impacts of trauma. “We tend not to consider [the] second generation as traumatic,” she said, “but something as horrendous as the Holocaust leaves some people so scarred that they cannot really love anymore, even their children. Or, they love but in a different, obsessive way. The children who grow up without feeling love are traumatized, too, but their wounds are invisible.

“It’s important to understand that, whilst the trauma lasts a minute or a year or five years, post-trauma lasts a lifetime and, when considering [the] second generation, then even more than a lifetime. Long-term traumas such as [the] Holocaust are not a swing of the sword, they are more like the bite of a snake – the venom penetrates the body and mixes with the blood of the victim.”

Though she generally directs her own works, Galron said, “When I’m the actress, I need someone on the outside. At first, I thought maybe I’d direct and not act. It was Ya’akov who begged me, after seeing my stand-up cabaret Passion Killer, to act the part.”

Jaffa, Israel-born director and playwright Hana Vazana Grunwald was the first person who came to Galron’s mind to direct.

“We studied theatre together at Tel Aviv University, but that was decades ago! I had no idea where to find her,” said Galron. “We’d met a couple of times in festivals, etc., along the years. I was thinking of her on my morning walk-jog in the park by my home. In the distance, I saw a woman that reminded me of Hana and then we got closer and I saw it actually was Hana! She lives five minutes away from me, but that was the first day she decided to go out and take a power-walk before work. I don’t believe in coincidence – it’s only God’s way of remaining anonymous.”

Grunwald started out in community theatre more than 25 years ago. She is the director of the Frechot Ensemble, a collective of women creators, which she founded some 10 years ago.

“I see myself as a feminist Mizrahi (Middle Eastern Jew) writer, who brings to the forefront my personal story,” she told the Independent. “But my personal story is never just my own, it’s an inherent part of my political story, my family’s story and the collective which I belong to. I feel that my world isn’t really represented in Israeli theatre. I don’t see the household I grew up in, I don’t encounter complexities and dilemmas that interest me. I realized I have the responsibility to represent myself – I have to write these texts, I have to tell these stories. My job is to search through history and prose and to bring back the voice of all those whose voice was taken away from them.”

When Galron sent her the script for Whistle, Grunwald said, “I was immediately hooked. But, after we met again, I felt that the opportunity to work together and find connections would also be reflected in the play’s dramaturgy.

“The challenge that the play Shirika [Whistle, in Hebrew] brings to our door is how to retell the story of the Holocaust and the story of the members of the second generation, who feel transparent. Two images guided me in my search for the keys to directing the play,” said Grunwald.

“The first: whistle. Tammy, the protagonist, lost her ability to whistle, she lost her ability to love and feel loved and, as she says in the play, ‘The opposite of death is not life, the opposite of death is love.’ The way this whistle is expressed on stage is through the prop of a kettle full of boiling water. The boiling and bubbling kettle and the whistler on stage metaphorically tell the story of the Holocaust, a story that never ends.

“The second image we chose is the painting. Tammy is a painter and, when we wondered what was painted on the stage, we realized that the body is the canvas, the body treasures and carries the wounds of the past, the memories – the actress jumps from limb to limb and with the help of simple means such as brushes and paints Tammy marks national history…. This is the way in which the trauma is present again on the stage.

“It seems that precisely now the spectacle of a whistle is given a relevant meaning,” Grunwald added. “We find ourselves facing a terrorist attack in which again Israeli Jews are brutally murdered and mass murdered because of their Jewishness. We again witness horror stories in this war against Hamas. We find ourselves again, 75 years after the establishment of the state of Israel, in a shocking event that reminds us of the fear of being destroyed. The harsh scenes from both sides shake the soul, sow terror and fear, and remind us that the feeling of security is a temporary illusion and we must not forget it. I work at the Hebrew-Arab theatre in Jaffa, a theatre that gives a stage to the binational discourse, it gives a stage to both narratives, and I feel that, these days, it is the first to be hurt.”

Galron also works with artists of different backgrounds and shared one of her experiences.

“Between 2016 and 2018, I was artistic director of the Shalom Festival, a small festival that was an official part of the Edinburgh Fringe fest,” she said. “We created this festival after an Israeli production, in 2014, was shouted down by the BDS [boycott, divest and sanction movement] and, in 2015, there were no Israeli productions.”

She was inspired by Sir Rudolf Bing, founding director of the Edinburgh International Festival, from which the Edinburgh Fringe Festival has its roots. Galron explained that Bing, a Jewish-Austrian opera singer, who fled Nazi Germany, “created the festival as a cultural bridge, inviting, firstly, German artists to take part! With that in mind, I told the sponsors of the Shalom Festival that we cannot make a one-sided Shalom (Peace) Festival and that, as the artistic director, I would like to bring artists from all of Israel, including Israeli Arabs – both Muslim and Christian – and also some Palestinian artists. At first, there was big objection but, eventually, I convinced them that these are Palestinians who believe in peace, in dialogue. Until today, even in these times, I am in contact with my Palestinian friends.

“I believe art is a bridge,” she said. “I believe art and culture and theatre have the power to heal – to give us insight and create empathy. From my very first performance as a stand-up artist – my show was on the status of women in the Jewish law – I made a decision to make my art meaningful, to merge life and stage.”

Since the Oct. 7 Hamas terror attacks on Israel, Galron has been posting related videos and other items on Facebook, including “Creativity in place of survival” writing challenges. She got the idea from a course she took during COVID with Dr. Joe Dispenza. “In one of the online digital courses, he speaks of how our brain can be either in ‘survival’ or in ‘creativity’ mode,” said Galron. “The moment I heard this, I understood many things about myself and how creativity has always been for me a way of surviving. Now I know that, when we begin to be creative, we actually begin to pull ourselves out of ‘survival’ [mode] even if we are being creative whilst we try to survive. A bit like Baron Munchausen explains that he pulls himself by his hair out of the pit.”

About how she is doing since the attacks, Galron said, “I didn’t have a real answer to that question until yesterday, because everything is so chaotic. But I was speaking to a university student of mine who answered, ‘I’m committed to the good.’ I was so moved by this. She told me she adopted it from her yoga teacher. I adopted it from her. I’m committed to the good.”

For tickets to Whistle and other Chutzpah! shows, visit chutzpahfestival.com.

Trauma, loss and hope

Composer Rita Ueda has written an opera inspired by Barbara Bluman’s book I Have My Mother’s Eyes. (photo by Danilo Bobyk)

“In light of what is happening in the news today, we need to tell the story of Chiune Sugihara and the Bluman family more than ever,” composer Rita Ueda told the Independent. “I suspect more and more world leaders, communities and individuals will be faced with the decision to either do the easy thing, or the right thing. We need to tell ourselves more stories of compassion, courage, healing and family love.”

Ueda’s chamber opera I Have My Mother’s Eyes: A Holocaust Memoir Across Generations premières at the Rothstein Theatre Nov. 18-19, as part of the Chutzpah! Festival. Directed by Heather Pawsey, the opera tells the story of Sugihara, the Japanese diplomat who risked his own life during the Holocaust to issue visas to Jews, including members of Vancouver’s Bluman family. Its title comes from the late Barbara Bluman’s book of the same name, which was published in 2009, five years after her death from cancer.

“I don’t think I fully knew why I wanted my mother’s book published … when I immersed myself in this legacy project,” said Danielle Schroeder. “Looking back, bringing her story and my grandmother’s stories to life brought me a lot of comfort and meaning as I grappled with the profound sense of loss her death brought…. Also, at the time it was published, stories about the impact of intergenerational trauma and resilience were not being written about that much in the mainstream, so I felt my mom’s book was unique in the way it interweaves and interconnects her and her mother’s stories of trauma, loss and hope. And, of course, being able to share with the world the story of courage, generosity and compassion of the Sugihara family was also important to me.”

Ueda found out about the Bluman family in 2017, through an installation at the Maritime Museum, and reached out to George Bluman, Barbara’s brother. She was moved by the intergenerational nature of I Have My Mother’s Eyes.

“Zosia [Susan] Bluman’s escape from the Holocaust is only a part of the story,” she said. “The story of how the next two generations carried on the family legacy affected me to the core. When George suggested I expand the opera to include the story of the three generations of the Sugihara family that saved them, I became compelled to create the opera!”

“I was very touched and honoured that such a well-respected Canadian composer would want to write an opera about my mom’s book,” said Schroeder. “Especially after meeting Rita in person and learning … how my mom’s book impacted her, it was easy to say ‘yes.’”

Ueda’s opera is inspired by Barbara Bluman’s book, rather than based on it.

“Opera is best suited to convey the characters’ emotional journey,” Ueda explained. “The opera covers all three characters from the book – Zosia, Barbara and Danielle – the three generations of the Bluman women, and their love for each other in light of all the events in their lives. Materials on the three generations of the Sugihara family were based on my two visits to the Sugihara family in Tokyo. Madoka Sugihara spent over five hours with me on each visit, and she showed me many photos and books. She let me play [her grandfather] Chiune Sugihara’s collection of sheet music on his piano, and she told me many family stories. I was truly moved by the two families’ journey of survival, healing, and love for each other.”

George Bluman shared a bit about the real-life people depicted: Zosia, Barbara and Danielle on the Bluman side and Chiune, Yukiko, Hiroki and Madoka on the Sugihara side.

Bluman’s mother was born in 1920 and died in 2004. “Her story, before coming to Vancouver in July 1941, comes to life in I Have My Mother’s Eyes,” he said. “In Vancouver, she worked as a salesperson/buyer in women’s clothing at Cordell’s and Jermaine’s. She was one of the founders of the annual Warsaw Ghetto memorial program, the forerunner of the current annual Yom Hashoah commemoration. Mum is featured in the 2000 PBS documentary Sugihara Conspiracy of Kindness, as well as in the Holocaust museums in Washington, New York and Los Angeles. She loved her family, hosting raucous weekly Sunday dinners for all, often including her children’s friends.

“My sister, Barbara Bluman (1950-2001), graduated from UBC Law School in 1975, among the first large class of women. She was an independent thinker and feminist who lovingly balanced raising her children and her career in law. Her commitment to human rights was demonstrated in all of her pursuits…. Her deep dedication to Holocaust understanding led to her contribution to the Gesher Project, a second-generation cultural exploration of the Holocaust, and organizing an important symposium on the Nuremberg trials.”

Bluman said that, from 1996 to 2000, his sister made notes from 19 interviews with their mother. “Excerpts from these notes formed the basis for her book,” he said, praising his niece’s efforts in getting the book published.

“Yukiko Sugihara (1913-2008) married Chiune Sugihara (1900-1986) in 1936,” said Bluman. “In 1993, my family first met her, together with her oldest son, Hiroki (1936-2002), and Michi (Hiroki’s wife) for a few hours at the Vancouver airport during a stopover on their way to a dinner in Toronto organized by Ontario Premier Bob Rae involving the Jewish and Japanese communities. There was a spontaneous outpouring of strong emotions. To me, in her demeanour, she was an empress! She knew no English and I no Japanese, but I felt what she was saying. My mum and Barbara attended the dinner in Toronto, where the principal guest speaker was David Suzuki.”

There were a few other encounters, and Bluman said he and his brother Bob have corresponded regularly with Madoka. “I have met her twice in visits to Japan,” said Bluman, noting that Bob joined him on the second visit.

“Madoka is a very gracious person and works passionately on making the world aware of the heroic legacy of her grandparents. According to Madoka, her grandmother Yukiko played a most essential role in the Sugihara story.”

Ueda’s opera is “especially meaningful,” said Schroeder, “because it brings my mother back to life and honours her in such a profound way.”

She added, “I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for the Sugihara family, so to see a piece of art be created that brings our family together is moving beyond words.”

photo - Teiya Kasahara as Yukiko Sugihara and Barbara Ebbeson as Zosia Bluman in I Have My Mother’s Eyes, which is part of the Chutzpah! Festival — Teiya Kasahara as Yukiko Sugihara and Barbara Ebbeson as Zosia Bluman in I Have My Mother’s Eyes, which is part of the Chutzpah! Festival. *(photo by Flick Harrison)*

It has taken seven years to get to this point – the opera’s première.

“George and Danielle have been wonderful to work with,” said Ueda. “They have shown me photos (which you will see in the production) and shared family stories with me. They also introduced me to the wonderful Sugihara family.”

Ueda shared “two fun facts”: George Bluman, an emeritus math professor at UBC, trained her brother, a former math professor himself; and she has received permission to turn Yukiko Sugihara’s Midnight Sun Songs, poems that chronicle her story as the wife of Chiune Sugihara, into a sequel to I Have My Mother’s Eyes. The world première will be in Tokyo in October 2024.

Ueda has been composing since she was a toddler. “My late mother was an opera singer, so I grew up in a household with music,” she said. “My early musical ‘scores’ were crayon drawings of picture-representations of the sounds I improvised at the piano. My very first composition teacher when I was 3 (who was about 95 at the time) encouraged me to improvise at the piano and to keep on ‘drawing’ scores in crayon colours, even though his own teachers in the 1880s were Helmholtz and Tchaikovsky. He also arranged for me to see many concerts and events with composers such as Steve Reich, Earle Brown and John Cage.”

The environment, human rights and other societal issues have inspired Ueda’s work. “People in the audience do not need to agree with what I say in my music, but I want them to use the experience as a catalyst for important community dialogue,” she said.

For Ueda, opera is the perfect medium for telling a story with a strong emotional content.

“Opera cannot deliver a blow-by-blow story like a TV drama, film or documentary,” she acknowledged, “but music combined with voice can speak to you at the deepest, most profound level. Through opera, I hope to tell engaging and relevant stories that are important to us – who we are, what we stand for, and what we believe in. European opera has had a history of elitism throughout the past 400 years, but recent Canadian opera productions have been changing this. I hope I Have My Mother’s Eyes will contribute to this change.”

For tickets to see I Have My Mother’s Eyes, visit chutzpahfestival.com.