Old Stock: A Refugee Love Story

Canadian theatre lives up to its reputation for being interesting, imaginative and innovative, as this second Canadian show at the Sydney Festival proves.

In it, playwright Hannah Moscovitch tells the (mostly) true story of her grandfather Chaim’s escape from Romania in 1908.

Played by the “genre-bending” songwriter Ben Kaplan, Chaim is an ebullient, engaging character who sings and dances to the not-so-traditional klezmer music that he has written with Christian Barry for this show.

Kaplan is accompanied on violin by Mary Fay Coady, who also plays Chaya, his long-suffering wife.

They are headed for Halifax where, they hope, a new life awaits them.

When the play opens, Chaim pops like a Jack-in-a-box out of a carton on stage that resembles a shipping container. 

He and Chaya open the doors at the front of the container to reveal a little room inside, which not only provides the settings for their story but also houses performers Dani Oore (woodwinds), Graham Scott (keyboard and accordion) and Jamie Kronick on drums.

Alternately tragic and funny, this beguiling story presents yet another spin on Jewish persecution in Europe and migration to the West.

It’s not surprising that this production has won multiple Edinburgh Fringe awards and was a New York Times Critic’s Pick.

The foot-tapping klezmer rhythms are irresistible and had the audience clapping along to a modern version of the ancient strains that Kaplan and Barry capture in songs like Truth Doesn’t Live in a Book, Plough the Shit, and What Love Can Heartbreak Allow. (ID)

Until Jan 20. Belvoir St Theatre, 25 Belvoir St, Surry Hills. $60-$66+b.f. Tickets & Info: www.sydneyfestival.org.au