social commentary

Art dismantles systems

“I Betrayed Him and the Fate of Becoming Him” by Yongzhen Li is part of Li’s solo exhibit – Structures of the Unsaid – at the Zack Gallery. (photo from Yongzhen Li)

On March 5, the Zack Gallery opened its first solo exhibition by a non-Jewish artist in years. Called Structures of the Unsaid, it presents the work of Yongzhen Li, a recent immigrant from China. By coincidence, it is also Li’s first solo show, and the show’s name reflects the artist’s feelings about his native China’s patriarchal culture and collectivist society.

“The art committee and I asked Li to be part of the Zack Gallery exhibitions over a year ago,” said Sarah Dobbs, the gallery’s curator.

“His talent, the way he handles the surface of the paper and the themes that we felt resonate with the Jewish community were the primary reasons for selecting him for a solo show,” she said. “The way he works – using ink, rice paper and mugwort water, which stains the surface before the image appears – reflects his deep skills as an artist. This was the primary pull for us to exhibit him. In addition, the water residue acts as a form of embodied memory, recalling the imperative to remember – the surface carries what cannot be seen.

“His practice emerges from absence, where the creation of each piece is a gesture of repair within fracture, like a quiet form of tikkun, a concept found in the Zohar,” she explained. “Painting is how he wrestles, remembers and remakes meaning. So, the conceptual nature of his work, combined with his skills, was a no-brainer. The committee and I just immediately voted him yes!”

Li and his wife, Jiamin, came to Canada in 2024, settling in Oshawa, Ont.

“I like the food here – so many Asian groceries,” he said with a smile. “But language is hard for me. It’s always been so, even before we came here. Language has always felt too thin. The words seem to flatten what I feel, while images allow it to remain alive.” That’s why he asked his wife to act as his interpreter during his interview with the Independent.

Li’s road to the arts was not simple.

“My father is a petroleum worker,” he said. “And so was his father before him. It is traditional in China that a son follows his father’s work. It is a good job, with a decent pay, and it was already arranged for me after I graduated, but I didn’t want to do it. I always felt like an outsider in my family. I didn’t want to know my future for the next 50 years. I knew it wouldn’t make me happy. I wanted to do art. I wanted to be free in my choices.”

That was his first rebellion, his first step against the established routine, but not his last.

“I was about 13 at the time…. By Chinese tradition, children of artists who follow their fathers into art start their artistic training at 6. I was already too old, but I needed to do it. Otherwise, I felt that I had nothing of my own. Fortunately, I had a good art teacher at school,” said Li, adding with a grin: “And I became popular with my classmates.”

photo - “Underground World” by Yongzhen Li, whose solo exhibit at Zack Gallery runs to April 13 — “Underground World” by Yongzhen Li, whose solo exhibit at Zack Gallery runs to April 13. *(image from Yongzhen Li)*

His next step upon graduation was the Academy of Fine Art in Xi’an, one of the largest cities in China, with an ancient history and a long artistic tradition. The famous Terracotta Army, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, is located just outside the city. The Xi’an academy is considered one of the best art schools in China, but Li didn’t like his time there.

“There was no creative freedom,” he said. “The professors were rigid, wanted me to copy them, to follow their instructions without thinking. It didn’t work for me.”

Once more, Li went against the established mode. He quit the academy and found a job to support himself and his wife. He worked with social media while teaching himself to be an artist.

“People thought I was crazy to quit,” he said. “My parents wouldn’t help financially – they didn’t approve of my actions. Besides, they were getting a divorce. And I was already married – we met at the academy. Jiamin was also a student there.”

When COVID struck, the young couple experienced the restrictions that were placed on people worldwide.

“We became all isolated, had to stay at home,” Li recalled. “But we watched lots on the internet, especially YouTube videos. In China, the world internet is not available – it is illegal there to access YouTube or Google or Facebook. Chinese people have their own limited internet version, allowed by the government, but many young people ignore those restrictions and download apps to watch the real internet. We did too and we learned a lot. We could finally see for ourselves how the world worked. We decided to emigrate to Canada.”

Canada was a revelation to Li. “I’m free here,” he said.

To make ends meet, Li works for a delivery company, but, in his spare time, he continues to paint and learn, and his art evolves. When he lived in China, his themes tended to be narrow, tied to certain events or ideas, but his latest imagery explores more complex issues of identity, memory and resistance.

“Art has become my emotional refuge as well as a method of self-liberation,” he said.

It also allows him to process his inner tension and vulnerability, as he struggles for personal and creative autonomy. His large painting “Underground World,” finished in the past month, is symbolic of his current trend of using traditional Chinese motifs and media to address contemporary and universal topics.

The painting looks like a collage, denoting the artist’s inner journey; many aspects intertwine and contradict one another. Family history versus personal fragility. Government direction versus private uncertainty.

“I am not searching for villains. I am dismantling systems,” Li says in his artist statement. “I refer to structures that appear normal: family control, humiliation disguised as education, and forms of care that carry hidden violence. Tragedy most often happens not through cruelty, but through what is socially justified, well-intentioned and unquestioned.”

As for his life in Canada, Li said, “I’m thinking of taking some art classes here. There is so much choice, so much freedom for an artist.”

Structures of the Unsaid is on display until April 13. To learn more about Li, visit his website, yongzhenli.com.

Olga Livshin is a Vancouver freelance writer. She can be reached at [email protected].

The power of photography

“Elaborate Pride Costume, Gay Pride,” Vancouver, 1996. (© Dina Goldstein)

One of the JCC Jewish Book Festival pre-festival events holds special meaning for the Jewish Independent. Photographer Dina Goldstein, whose artistry has focused on large-scale narrative tableaux the last many years, began her career with the JI’s predecessor, the Jewish Western Bulletin. She has compiled thousands of images from her work over the last three decades – as a photojournalist, editorial photographer, traveler and artist – for the recently published 400-page hard-cover The XXX Archive, which she will share with the community on Feb. 12, 7 p.m.

photo - Dina Goldstein talks about her new book, The Archive XXX, at a JCC Jewish Book Festival pre-festival event on Feb. 12 — Dina Goldstein talks about her new book, The Archive XXX, at a JCC Jewish Book Festival pre-festival event on Feb. 12. *(© Dina Goldstein)*

“I spent the pandemic going through containers of binders filled with negatives. Many of the images I remember snapping, but others that I found surprised me,” Goldstein told the Independent. “Editing the lot after 30 years of shooting was overwhelming at first. The process of archiving is slow and fastidious, often challenging my expeditious nature. I leaned in, not knowing how long or how many images I would be working with. Within two years, I scanned, photographed, numbered, printed and added over 3,000 images to a boxed and digital archive. The result left me relieved that my life’s work was now organized in a way that was documented and accessible.”

The word “herculean” is used in The Archive XXX to describe the task of creating the archive. Goldstein worked by year of creation, grouping the images by decades.

“I started with the early ’90s, when I first started my career and shot with black-and-white film,” she said. “Many of those images I had photographed for the Jewish Western Bulletin, my first job as an editorial shooter. I had special opportunities to meet and photograph many great people, like Elie Wiesel, Seth Rogen, Liz Taylor, Ruth Westheimer, Mordecai Richler, Jackie Mason, Bill Clinton.

“In the 2000s, I was working as a commercial and editorial photographer. I photographed mostly in colour and did some experimentation with processes. This is when I began crafting series of photographs. I spent two years at Hastings Racetrack and created Trackrecord. I expanded on my staged portraits with DAVID.

photo - Comedian Seth Rogen in his early days, 1997. Rogen is just one of many famous people that Dina Goldstein has photographed — Comedian Seth Rogen in his early days, 1997. Rogen is just one of many famous people that Dina Goldstein has photographed. (© Dina Goldstein)

“By 2006, digital photography was introduced as consumer cameras. Art directors were passing along assignments to less-qualified shooters and/or having the writer also take the pictures. I felt that I needed to pivot,” Goldstein said, adding that, by then, she was also a new mother and things in general were shifting.

“In 2007,” she said, “I began to focus on a new series inspired by my toddler daughter, who suddenly became obsessed with Disney princesses. This was a new way of creating narrative within my imagery. The series was a critical success, giving me the confidence to continue with this methodology.”

Although Goldstein mentions the making of her tableaux projects in The Archive XXX, she decided not to include the staged works within the compilation. “This is also because I continued enthusiastically photographing street, documentary and portraiture,” she said.

Over the 2010s, Goldstein was invited to show her work internationally at galleries, photo festivals and museums, and traveled extensively – to Europe, India, China, Korea, Taiwan, New Zealand and Australia. “So many of The Archive images come from my travels around the world,” she said.

The Archive XXX ends at the start of the pandemic, in the early 2020s. Of course, she has continued to create. Last fall, she presented a new staged photography series: Mistresspieces. Each of the 10 works features a famous female portrait from history placed in a modern-day challenge. For example, the goddess of Sandro Botticelli’s “The Birth of Venus” floats alongside a beach piled with the life jackets of those who have fled to European shores and Salvador Dalí’s “Galatea at the Moment of Creation” has Galatea surrounded by Amazon packages and melting icebergs in Goldstein’s reimagining.

Mistresspieces is Goldstein’s eighth tableaux series, including Fallen Princesses.

“The idea for Fallen Princesses came to me intuitively, when I realized the way that Disney was influencing my daughter,” she explained. “I decided to select well-known female fairytale characters and parachute them into modernity. I gave them all relatable challenges that play out within a familiar location. The methodology, production-based, was novel, as I no longer just depended on myself and my camera. This format is more collaborative and filmic, with lighting as an intricate skill. Thankfully, the project was successful online, in the media and in education. So, I discovered that I could still create critical work, with specific messaging amplifying my voice in the form of visual social commentary…. Now, in light of AI and the quick accessibility of image-making, I am looking to the future, making some tough decisions.”

Goldstein recognized the power of images at a young age.

“As a child, I would go through my grandmother’s photographs for hours at a time,” she said. “The postcard-like black-and-white photos of her, as a young woman in Romania, were not only beautiful but a window into her life. I would stare at an image and take it all in, her outfit, her shoes, the people she was with, the buildings behind her. Within these images, I discovered people and places throughout the decades of her life. As an adult, I have kept my camera beside me, just in case, it was a compulsion of sorts. I wanted to make pictures that would tell the story of my life as well. Perhaps not as the subject, but as the narrator. Today, mostly everyone suffers from the same need, with the readiness and ease of using a smartphone camera to document or to create an image.”

In The Archive XXX, there are photographs of such a diverse range of people, from presidents to Pride paraders, the famous and the often-overlooked. That Goldstein is comfortable around people, no matter who they are, is partly because of her father.

“My father was a very charismatic figure,” she said. “He was a product of the Second World War, uneducated but street smart. He was able to connect with people, all sorts of people. I understood that there is always something that you may have in common with another person. That’s a good starting point.”

Travel has also contributed to Goldstein’s ease around almost everyone in almost every situation.

“Traveling as a young person allowed me to open up to others, and trust that most folks are good people,” she explained. “My positive experiences as a young photographer were foundational for what the next three decades would bring, working with various diverse personalities. Becoming a mother made me more cautious with my assignments and travel. I certainly didn’t take as many chances or put myself in danger while my girls were little. I remember traveling in India and Colombia, both places I had to be extra aware.

photo - “Horse and Carriage,” Romania, 2006 — “Horse and Carriage,” Romania, 2006. *(© Dina Goldstein)*

“In general, I find that society is complex and divided. This became super-evident during the pandemic, and recently after Oct. 7, 2023. I was able to photograph the anti-vaxxer gang, where bizarre people came out of the woodwork. The Free Palestine bunch includes some of these types, and also an element of proud antisemites. When they first rallied, in big crowds, holding up signs ‘From the River to the Sea’ down Commercial Drive, I photographed it, slightly shocked, slightly sickened. I decided then that I could not personally or professionally continue to be there as a witness to this open hatred.”

A lot changed for Goldstein after Oct. 7, she said. “Losing friends that were once close, making new friends (mostly Jewish), actively fighting against anti-Jewish/Israel sentiment in my East Van neighbourhood and within the Vancouver arts community. This leads to the next chapter of my career, where I will focus more on my Jewish/Israeli identity and Ashkenazi Jewish heritage.”

Goldstein has written a TV series called Grimm Lane, which is based on Fallen Princesses. She is creating a new book with her narrative series Storyography and is also working on the TV series The Tribe, which is based on three Jewish families living in Toronto.

For more about The Archive XXX, Goldstein’s tableaux series and other work, visit dinagoldstein.com. To attend her JCC Jewish Book Festival talk, register at jccgv.com/jewish-book-festival-events/feb-12. The event is free to attend.

Victoria Fringe has started

Director Francis G. Matheu, right, with actors Nolan Fidyk and Dan Landry rehearsing Alan Segal’s Shade Apparel. (photo by Sarah Nicole Faucher)

This year’s Victoria Fringe Festival, billed as “12 days of madcap fun this summer,” started on Aug. 20 and runs to Aug. 31. Included in the lineup are pieces by two local Jewish community members, Alan Segal and David Heyman.

Segal describes his play, Shade Apparel, as “comedy, drama and absurdity.” It features Danver, a playwright rooted in daily routine, who tries to find answers to questions he never knew he had. And, Segal told the Independent, “He is not prepared for the answers. Shade Apparel is a play about wanting to know more and not knowing where to find anything.”

In Segal’s words, our society is “heavily psychologized,” in that everything is given a psychological or emotional origin story, he said. “But, if we breathe, we absorb culture, ideas, ideals and assumptions.

“Most of the time, we have a slight awareness of the precise origin of these. Their origin tale, however, is found in the social cauldron of daily life. This, too, is our apparel. We are clothed in more than material fabric,” he said.

From an early age, Segal has had an interest in how people become, well, anything; for example, how are allegiance, assurance, belonging, anger, dissent, happiness, or its opposite, created?

Segal’s first Victoria Fringe experience was not as a playwright but as a supporter of the arts who was captivated by the aura and array of creativity he observed. Last year, he founded Imbroglio Theatre, which will put on Shade Apparel.

“Beyond headlines and supposed fame, people venture into many realms of expression. I loved it from the start, and I expect many will be enlivened by what is approaching in Victoria at the end of August,” he said.

The creative team for the Fringe show comprises Dan Landry, Nolan Fidyk and Kendra Bidwell (cast), Alan Segal (writer), Francis G. Matheu (director), Elaine Montgomery (stage manager), Luke Weston and Andrea Gregg (lighting design), Phil Letourneau (music and sound design), Sarah Nicole Faucher (costume design) and Doug Wills (poster and program).

“Shade Apparel is the second play I have written – a project I never intended to write and had no inkling of, until it leaped into my mind as a single scene,” said Segal.

His first play, Frey’s Anguish, premiered in March 2024 at Paul Phillips Hall in Victoria.

photo - David Heyman’s Ducks co-stars, right to left, Gloria Snider, Lorene Cammiade, Ryan Kniel and Danielle Greschner — David Heyman’s Ducks co-stars, right to left, Gloria Snider, Lorene Cammiade, Ryan Kniel and Danielle Greschner. *(photo from David Heyman)*

Heyman’s play, Ducks, takes place in the aftermath of an incident in which 1,600 ducks flew into an oilsands tailings pond in northern Alberta and died – a true event that caused international criticism of the provincial government. Years later, the oil company that owned and operated the pond was fined and the government promised tighter restrictions; however, the damage to Alberta’s reputation was significant.

The fictionalized theatrical story centres on a government communications director who has 20 minutes to retrieve an embarrassing, career-ending invitation erroneously sent out in his name before the media or public find out about it.

“I was communications manager for the premier of Alberta at the time [of the real-life incident] and, although I was not involved in managing the issue … I was able to observe the crisis-management efforts from up close,” Heyman said.

“The characters and events in the play are entirely made up but are informed by my inside knowledge of how communications offices work, and how the media deal with such situations,” he said. “Before joining the Alberta Premier’s Office, I was a political reporter at the Calgary Herald for many years. Many people who work in governments in Alberta and BC have told me that the play feels authentic, which was my goal.”

When Ducks premiered at the Victoria One-Act Play Festival in 2023, it won the prize for outstanding original script. When it was performed at the 2024 Edmonton Fringe Festival, five of eight shows sold out and the play received stellar reviews. The play has also been performed at the Nanaimo Fringe Festival and in Tofino.

Heading into the Victoria Fringe, Heyman said, “We’ve got a top-notch cast, a great director and a great stage manager this year. The rehearsals are going very well and I’m confident it will be a hit.”

Heyman is the show’s producer and, joining him in mounting the Fringe show are Ryan Kniel, Lorene Cammiade, Gloria Snider and Danielle Greschner (cast), Francis G. Matheu (director), Andrea Gregg (stage manager) and Sarah Heyman (associate producer).

David Heyman has written an as-yet-unperformed sequel, Rhymes with Ducks, that he hopes to put on at next year’s festival. “The sequel is designed also to be a second (and final) act, and perhaps one day both will be performed as a single show,” he said.

For the Fringe, Shade Apparel is at Victoria Conservatory of Music’s Wood Hall, while Ducks is at James Bay United Church. Both plays are 45 minutes long. For tickets and more information, visit victoriafringe.com.

Sam Margolis has written for the Globe and Mail, the National Post, UPI and MSNBC.

Two visions that complement

Kim Rosin, left, and Alejandra Morales’s shared exhibit, Parallel Visions, is at the Zack Gallery until July 21. (photo from the artists)

The double exhibit Parallel Visions opened at the Zack Gallery on June 25. It introduces two artists – Kim Rosin and Alejandra Morales – who have different backgrounds, are different ages and had never met before. But their art is amazingly compatible.

“When Alejandra submitted the photos of her pieces, they were mostly of fruit, along with a fruit stand. I thought that it would be interesting to pair her with Kim’s allotments,” said gallery curator Sarah Dobbs about why she combined both artists in one show. “However, when I saw Alejandra’s work at her studio, there was so much more, so I had to rethink.

“Upon reflection, I realized that both Kim and Alejandra turn to the natural world as more than just subjects of beauty. For Kim, painting from a community garden in West Vancouver becomes a way to reflect on growth, nourishment and the fragility of food systems in times of scarcity. Alejandra, working from northern Mexico, uses natural imagery as well, but in a dreamier way – exploring how Latin America is romanticized by outsiders. Though grounded in different geographies and experiences, both artists explore how abundance can hold layers of tension between beauty and critique, comfort and resistance. Hence the title, Parallel Visions.”

Rosin’s paintings are of her plot in a community garden. “I have always been interested in growing food,” she said. “From nothing, just a little seed, wonderful, nourishing plants grow. It feels almost magical. It makes me happy but also a little sad, because not everybody can grow their own food. Some people have to go without, when they don’t have a garden and can’t buy their vegetables because of high prices. When I look at my plot, I think of the food chain on our planet.”

Her paintings are full of edible green things: kale and lettuce, beets and carrots. One can imagine the labour that went into growing such a lush garden and the tasty dishes after the harvest. The images reflect the artist’s love for the plants she grows, as well as her longing to share her cornucopia with everyone. Her painting of red poppies is a worthy companion to the vegetable plots, adding beauty to the nutritional component. “Many people grow poppies in our plots,” she said.

photo - “Plot 5: Poppies and Pollinators” by Kim Rosin — “Plot 5: Poppies and Pollinators” by Kim Rosin. *(photo from the artist)*

Rosin also enjoys painting still life. “It is like a recording of a moment in time,” she said. “And the decorative element is there, too. People often appreciate such paintings, especially if they could ask me to include their favourite objects in the image.”

She likes working on commissions, which she describes as “collaborations with the clients.”

“Commissions take a different mindset from making art of my own, less creative freedom,” she acknowledged. “Some clients have a certain vision, and my job is to bring that vision to life. One example is dog portraits. Dog owners want them realistic, almost photographic. I don’t have to interpret anything, as I do in my own paintings. It is easier in some way, like a mechanical exercise. My creativity is not as important as my skills as a painter. Of course, it is not that simple. When I paint, the image occasionally changes on its own, it has its own demands. Then I worry. What if the client doesn’t like the end result? What if they won’t buy this painting? Fortunately, that has never happened to me.”

People’s stories have always served as an inspiration for her art. “I’m curious about everything – traveling, music, nature. Before I moved to Vancouver, I lived in Seattle,” she said. “I worked on theatre sets for several fringe theatres there…. After I moved here, I created a set for a musical on Granville Island. Teaming up with theatre companies was always a fabulous experience, despite the low budgets.”

Like Rosin, Morales also likes working on commissions. “Some people are very relaxed. ‘You’re the artist. You know what to do.’ Other people are very involved. They want exactly what they envision and you, the artist, need to give them what they want,” she said.

On the other hand, unlike the serene greenery in Rosin’s paintings, Morales’s paintings emphasize her unease with society’s contradictions and paradoxes. Her flowers are colourful and gorgeous, but unrealistic. “I wanted them too beautiful for this world, almost uncomfortable,” she said. “And the animals in my paintings – they fight, like humans do. There are conflicts there.”

In her self-portrait, which is on display, the dichotomy between the pastel tones, the elaborate, narcissistic flowers, the birds in the middle of an angry confrontation and the pensive woman facing the painting echoes the artist’s contemplation on the incongruities of life.

The self-portrait is titled “Will Happiness Find Me?” Many of Morales’s other paintings also sport titles that add a verbal facet to the art’s visual impact. “My titles come from books or songs. Or, I remember someone saying something, and it is relevant for this painting. Or a title could be a quote from an old show,” she said. Her tranquil landscape of a Vancouver shoreline is called “Nothing Mattered More Than Anything Else.”

photo - “Will Happiness Find Me?” by Alejandra Morales — “Will Happiness Find Me?” by Alejandra Morales. (photo from the artist)

Morales moved to Vancouver four years ago from Mexico. “I received my BA from McGill University in 2016 and studied for my master’s degree in visual arts at UBC.”

Besides Canada, she studied art in Spain and in her native Mexico. “When I took art classes in Mexico, many students were housewives,” she recalled. “North Mexican culture is different than here. Women are supposed to follow a traditional path of a wife and a mother. The women that took art classes were anxious because they deviated from that path. I wanted to show their anxiety, their inner struggle in my paintings.”

According to Morales, women are freer here in Canada, the entire society more relaxed, and her art reflects the difference. “I painted a jungle in Mexico – and it was very bright and colourful. But when I painted a jungle here, the colours became less vivid, more muted. Maybe because it was raining outside,” she said.

Morales taught fine art as a teacher’s assistant, while she studied at UBC. “I liked teaching. I would like to do more of that,” she said.

Her latest artistic project is rather unusual. She painted a series of cityscapes featuring dumpsters around Vancouver. “Some of them have amazing graffiti. It was such fun,” she said.

Parallel Visions is on until July 21. Rosin’s website is kimthings.com; Morales’s is moralesalejandra.com.

Olga Livshin is a Vancouver freelance writer. She can be reached at [email protected].

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.

Songs released since Oct. 7

At Beth Tikvah Synagogue on April 2, Israeli music expert and radio personality Josh Shron will present A Musical Hug from Israel. (photo from Josh Shron)

Beth Tikvah Synagogue in Richmond welcomes Israeli music expert and radio personality Josh Shron on April 2. Shron, longtime host of the radio show and podcast Israel Hour Radio, will be in Calgary and Vancouver as part of a North American tour. He will present A Musical Hug from Israel, which explores songs that have been released in Israel since Oct. 7.

For Shron, Israeli music has always meant more than just nice tunes in Hebrew. It’s been a window into Israeli society, providing a meaningful glimpse into the heart and soul of the Jewish state. “I’ve long believed that Israeli music has the power to connect us to our homeland unlike anything else,” Shron said. “The songs are great, but the stories behind them often teach us a great deal about the amazing spirit of Israel.”

It’s that amazing spirit that has enabled Israelis to cope with the horrific events of Oct.7. Music has been a large part of the healing process.

“The music that’s emerged from this tragedy has been nothing short of inspirational,” said Shron. “It makes us cry, makes us sigh and makes us proud to be supporters of Israel – sometimes all in the same song.”

The presentation will feature a selection of Israeli songs, seen on video with English subtitles. The music will highlight the unity, optimism and determination that have characterized the Israeli people throughout this challenging period, showcasing the resilience and strength that unite them in the face of adversity. The repertoire will include songs that touch on themes of sadness and death. Other songs will shed light on the plight of Israeli hostages in Gaza, serving as a reminder of the desperation felt around the world to bring them all home.

Several Vancouverites have previewed Shron’s presentation and agree that it is a powerful and unique way for the local community to understand the rollercoaster of emotions that Israelis and other Jews around the world have been experiencing.

A former resident of New Jersey, Shron recently fulfilled a lifelong dream by making aliyah with his wife and four of his five children, moving to Modi’in in August 2023.

“I’ve immersed myself in Israeli music for more than 25 years,” he said, “and the more I listened, the more I felt like I belonged there. We put it off for years, but, with our kids getting older, we realized it’s now or never – and we weren’t prepared to say never. Obviously, we wish the circumstances were different, but, during this challenging time, it just feels right to be there. It’s only been a few months, but we can’t imagine living anywhere else.”

Thanks to sponsor support from the Kehila Society, Richmond Jewish Day School and the Vancouver Israeli Folkdance Society, tickets to A Musical Hug at Beth Tikvah April 2, 7 p.m., are only $10 each. As part of the event, Hadas Klinger will lead an Israeli dance session immediately following Shron’s presentation.

The event is for adults 19+ and registration is recommended, as space is limited. Visit tinyurl.com/28anpjab.

– Courtesy Beth Tikvah

Laugh, cheer, boo at panto

Steffanie Davis, who plays Belle, with a couple of the young actors in East Van Panto: Beauty and the Beast, at the York Theatre until Jan. 7. (photo by Emily Cooper, illustrations by Cindy Mochizuki)

Every year, the Cultch and Theatre Replacement’s annual panto, celebrating East Vancouver and poking fun at pop culture and local politics, seems to outdo itself. East Van Panto: Beauty and the Beast, which opened at York Theatre last week, is a rollicking good time that doesn’t sacrifice quality for fun. The text, music, sets, performance – everything is top-notch about this production that will have you cheering, booing, laughing, clapping … generally having a great time.

In the story by new-to-the-panto playwrights Jivesh Parasram and Christine Quintana, Belle, who dreams of studying business at the University of British Columbia so she can get the skills to bring wealth to her East Van neighbourhood, is captured by Beast, an arrogant young man from West Van who is turned into a mattress by Enchantress for his unbending attitude. The curse will not be lifted until this young man, who “won’t flip for nobody,” is able to change his mind – a prized ability in this production. Unfortunately, the curse extends to the staff and patrons of the Japanese food store into which the man had entered to buy some sushi. Transformed into such items as miso soup, soy sauce and various types of sushi, these innocents rely on Belle to save them – and herself – “before the last cherry blossom falls.”

Using physical humour and wittily riffing on pop songs like “Flower” by Miley Cyrus, “Kokomo” by the Beach Boys and “Sweet Dreams” by the Eurythmics, the panto cast is led by Steffanie Davis as Belle and Jason Sakaki as Beast, both strong actors with fantastic singing voices, funky moves and excellent comedic timing. The supporting cast is equally as skilled, and they are, in turn, supported by first-rate creative, design and production teams. Anita Rochon directs the show, and Veda Hille is composer and musical director. Jewish community member Mishelle Cuttler, as assistant musical director, alternates nights with Hille at the keyboard.

East Van Panto: Beauty and the Beast is an ode to community. In this iteration, it highlights two decades-old local businesses, Fujiya Japanese Foods and Mr. Mattress, which are located across the street from each other, at Venables Street and Clark Drive. A highlight of opening night was meeting several folks from Mr. Mattress, a long-time advertiser in the Jewish Independent.

The panto runs until Jan. 7 in-person and on-demand online Dec. 18-Jan. 7. For tickets, visit thecultch.com/event/east-van-panto.

From poems to songs

Loolwa Khazzoom (photo by Moriel O’Connor)

“Dear Hostages, as the world rallies to celebrate your desecration I will not forsake you,” begins the poem written by Seattle-based multimedia artist and educator Loolwa Khazzoom. Posted on her Facebook page, with a #BringThemHomeNow poster featuring photos of Israelis kidnapped on Oct. 7, it continues, “My instinct is to deprive myself of oxygen / Because you are underground / And I will not forget you // But I know that you would dance / In the sun / If given the chance / So I now rise up / And dance for you.”

Many of Khazzoom’s songs begin as poems. In this case, she told the Independent, “I felt as if I could not breathe and as if I did not even want to breathe, out of solidarity with the hostages and with all of Israel, in particular, all the victims of the Oct. 7 massacre. It’s like I wanted to physically feel their pain and suffering, as a way of physically demonstrating that I would not forsake them or forget them.”

In a traumatized mental state, Khazzoom returned to the “healing tools of poetry and music,” which was another way she could show her solidarity and do her part in keeping the issue of the hostages in front of people.

Similarly, Khazzoom and her band, Iraqis in Pajamas, recently released another poem-turned-song, “#MahsaAmini.” They did so this past Sept. 16, the first anniversary of the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini at the hands of Iranian “morality police.”

Finding out about Amini’s murder soon after it took place, from TikTok videos posted by Iranian women, Khazzoom “jumped into action.” She wrote to her political representatives, raised funds for United 4 Iran and reposted Iranian women’s videos on her feed constantly, to help boost the content’s views. “In addition,” she said, “a day after I found out about what happened, a poem with my feelings poured out of me, and I posted it on social media. Months later, I put that poem to a melody, and the band developed it into a full band song, which we released on the [anniversary of the] day of Amini’s murder.”

The death affected Khazzoom deeply for many reasons.

“First, the women in my family wore the abaya, the Iraqi equivalent of the hijab – Jewish women throughout the region were subject to Muslim dress codes, so it’s a Jewish issue, too,” she said. “Second, so many people assume that Islam is indigenous throughout the Middle East and North Africa, but it’s not. Arab Muslims rose up from the Arabian Peninsula and conquered the entire region, forcibly converting masses under the threat of death. So many indigenous ethnicities and religions predated the Muslim conquest, including Jews, Persians, Berbers and Kurds. The Iranian women protesting and burning their hijabs felt to me like challenging that Muslim conquest and awakening the ancient Persian warriors. Third, Persia is central to Jewish history and the origins of the Mizrahi community, dating back nearly three millennia ago…. And, lastly, the fire of these women, and the men who joined them, and their willingness to risk their lives for their dignity and freedom was just breathtaking and profoundly inspirational.”

Another of Iraqis in Pajamas’ releases this year was also intensely personal for Khazzoom.

“I wrote ‘The Convert’s Quest’ in response to some friends on social media sharing how hurt they were, coming under attack during the process of their conversion to Judaism. I had ample experience witnessing variations on this theme throughout my life – both first-person, seeing it happen to friends, and through my research as a Jewish multicultural educator. For decades, I felt very disturbed by this seemingly growing trend.

“I am the daughter of a Jew by choice, as my mother called herself, so the matter of conversion to Judaism is very personal for me,” she said. “I remember understanding very clearly as an Orthodox Jewish child that, according to halachah (Jewish law), once you convert, you are no longer to be called ‘a convert,’ but rather, a Jew, period. So, even from a religious Jewish perspective itself, I was very distraught by the ways that Jewish leaders and communities were rejecting or harassing converts, or even all-out forbidding people from converting. It all flies in the face of Jewish history, theology and practice.”

The band released “The Convert’s Quest” on May 24, on the harvest holiday of Shavuot, which celebrates the giving of the Torah to the Jewish people and on which the Book of Ruth is read. It tells the story of Ruth, a Moabite woman who converted to Judaism, whom Jewish tradition teaches will be the ancestor of the Messiah.

“To me, Jewish converts are the lifeblood of the Jewish people,” said Khazzoom. “I have a provocative line in my song, saying that converts are ‘the most Jewish Jews of all,’ because they are intentionally and consciously practising the foundational precepts of Judaism, which so many either take for granted or do rote, as is often the case in the Orthodox Jewish world where I was raised. In addition, amidst life-threatening levels of racism and violence against Jews, converts choose Judaism…. Why would we reject, in any way, from subtle to blatant, someone with such a heroic Jewish soul?”

Even when delivered in a playful manner, Khazzoom’s song are serious to the core. The campy “Kitchen Pirate,” for example, “emerged from my choice to reject the conventional option of surgery, in the wake of a cancer diagnosis in 2010,” she said. “Instead, I chose to radically alter my diet and lifestyle. Simply by overhauling my diet, I cold-stopped the growth of the nodules, which remained stable for the next five years – neither growing nor shrinking – until I returned to my lost-love of music, following which they began shrinking.”

Khazzoom said her songs “are always questioning, always challenging, always defiant. Sometimes, it’s more explicit, other times it’s embedded in silliness, which, parenthetically, I also see as defiant. I am and forever will be a curious, playful and awe-inspired child. I think that, if and when we ‘outgrow’ that, we die inside. And I refuse to capitulate to that norm of expected behaviour once we enter adulthood. By way of example, to this day, at age 54, when I am flying in a plane, if there is nobody sitting next to me, I will stretch out my arms and pretend I’m a bird, during takeoff.”

Not everyone has appreciated this aspect of her personality. “I have constantly gotten into trouble for it and have been at odds with my family, my community and society at large,” said Khazzoom. “I have endured terrible loneliness and often even self-doubt as a result. But I always come back to my core. And all of my songs emerge from that place – that raw, gut-wrenching place of being fiercely alive and allowing the clash with everything around me, and then writing about it.”

It is this enthusiasm that Victoria-based band member Mike Deeth enjoys about being in Iraqis in Pajamas, whose third member is Chris Belin.

“Loolwa and Chris are both easy-going, creative people. The energy is very positive, which makes collaborating with them fun and organic,” Deeth told the Independent. “Further, I appreciate the passion Loolwa has for the subject matter she writes about. One thing I always struggled with as a musician is ‘What do I have to say?’ At the end of the day, I’m a privileged guy who has never had to face oppression, hate, war or genocide. I have a lot of respect for artists who have experienced darker parts of humanity and have the courage to bring that perspective into their art.”

Born in Toronto, Deeth, who is not Jewish, spent most of his adolescence in Calgary, and moved to Vancouver Island when he was 18. He first picked up a guitar a few years earlier and has been playing ever since. “I was in my first band at 18 and played in bands throughout my 20s. For the past several years, I have been mainly focused on recording,” he said.

photo - Mike Deeth — Mike Deeth *(photo from Mike Deeth)*

Deeth got hooked on music production in his teens, getting his first digital recorder at age 16. “I still remember pulling all-nighters with friends trying to write songs and get ideas down on tape. Production was always fascinating to me, as I could layer parts together into something bigger than I could ever play on my own.”

Deeth and Khazzoom met a couple of years ago through a Craigslist posting. “She was looking for a guitarist to contribute to an early version of her track ‘The Convert’s Quest,’” he explained, complimenting Khazzoom on the fact that she “puts her full heart into her songs.”

“I recorded some initial guitar demos and, about a year later, we reconnected and worked up the current releases,” he said.

Deeth adds guitar to the songs and completes the mix and master of the songs when they are ready for those steps. Khazzoom sings, writes and plays bass, while Belin – who lives in Pennsylvania – composes the drum parts and performs them.

Among his other music ventures, Deeth has “played the guitar with Bryce Allan, a country musician here on the island, and recorded a few tracks with him. I also work closely with Jennie Tuttle, another musician from Victoria. We have been recording together for seven or eight years now.”

For Deeth, “recording is such an interesting combination of art and science. I get to be musically creative, but I also get to play with cool machines, solve problems and think about gain staging, compression ratios and other technical aspects. I thoroughly enjoy both the artistic and scientific parts of the process – they work my mind in different ways.

“I also love how each project starts as a blank canvas and ends with a new piece of music out in the world. There are an almost infinite number of possibilities when recording a track (all the possible settings on the equipment, the subtleties of different instruments) and it always fascinates me how each song takes shape during the process.”

“Mike has an exquisite sensitivity in his musical composition, performance and recording,” said Khazzoom. “He’s not only super-talented and -skilled, but he’s warm, upbeat, enthusiastic and professional. It’s a joy to create music with him. As is the case with our drummer Chris Belin, Mike has an uncanny ability to capture the essence of the songs I write, to the point that I feel he is playing back to me the sound of my soul. I have literally sat and cried after hearing the mixes.”

For more on Khazzoom, visit khazzoom.com. For more on Deeth’s production and sound services, visit glowingwires.com.

The first step is the to-do list

Yesterday, I shared my to-do list with a friend via email. She responded with “Ahh! I’m tired just reading this!” What I didn’t mention is that I had to do all this plus other chores, thrown in, which I had either forgotten to write down or were such household habits that I didn’t list them. For many caregivers who work and manage households, this sounds familiar. It’s the list that is the first step. Write it down. Name the obligation. Then release yourself from trying to remember it all. Finally, cross it off the list later.

This isn’t a new phenomenon. Studies have shown how much of this organizational and emotional labour falls to women. For example, a recent National Public Radio piece from the United States covered research by economists, which showed that women (mothers) were almost always contacted by schools first, no matter which parent was designated as the “first contact” on the emergency form. The social media chatter that followed remarked on how female medical residents or surgeons, working hours away from their children’s schools, were still called first even though the primary caretaker was the father. In the study itself, one economist described the mental load of planning ahead for “if the school called” and how women’s workload could be managed in such situations. She noted that, even though her husband was the vice-president of the Parent Teacher Association, the school always called her first.

In economic terms, women then self-select for lower paying, more flexible work simply to manage these challenges, resulting in lower income and fewer opportunities for career growth. Societal obligations placed mostly on women create a lifelong effect on earning power and household income.

This morning, as I bake bread, make chicken broth in two slow cookers, write this article and air out the house with fans because of an unexpected drop in temperatures due to a rainstorm, I time everything to fit into the hours between when I drop kids off at 9 a.m. and pick them up at noon for their half day of camp. This is, of course, not a specifically Jewish problem, but aspects of it are in our house.

We have twin 12-year-olds, with both kids doing b’nai mitzvah lessons at the same time. These kids come with different challenges. Like all learners, they may need different supports to master chanting trope. Amid the meltdown tears last night, it became clear that what was necessary was for each kid to have 15 minutes to practise separately every day with me. As the crying continued – and I include myself in the crying – my partner tried to help.

This is when you might wonder why all this falls to me, and you’d be right to ask. My partner told us that the year before his bar mitzvah involved a lot of crying. He was so overwhelmed that he quit playing drums at school, because he couldn’t manage both things. His mother had been given no Jewish education. She couldn’t read Hebrew and didn’t know the prayers. His father worked late every day, coming home at 11 p.m. My twins’ dad was truly on his own, with a cassette tape. He never learned the trope and struggled with short-term memory issues. Mastering his bar mitzvah portion took him a long time. As an adult, he never gained some of these prayer skills. A demanding job means now is not the time for him to catch up. The obligation’s all mine.

We’ve now been married for 25 years and I just learned last night about this tough path my husband took towards bar mitzvah. By comparison, I had supportive parents with some Jewish literacy, plus we attended services regularly. I was self-directed as a learner. Mastering everything for my bat mitzvah was interesting and challenging but not a struggle. I continued learning through university and graduate school and beyond, as I continue to study Talmud when I can. We chose a bilingual Hebrew/English elementary school for our kids partially because it would make bar mitzvah study easier for them.

Few people see what my lists of work and household obligations look like. I tell even fewer people about fitting in 20 minutes of Daf Yomi, a page of Talmud every day. When I mention the Talmud study, I’ve been asked why I bother. The minutiae of discussions of Jewish law that rabbis conducted so long ago is of no interest to most. Sometimes, if the person wants to know why, I explain that I learn things about Jewish tradition, history and daily life from these debates.

I also admit to myself that I find some reassurance in these pages. Although the specifics might have been different, life’s minutiae is pretty much the same. The rabbis struggled over multiple daily tasks, relationships and household concerns in many of the ways I do. They sweated the details, even if they didn’t do them all personally.

If everything works out, in June 2024, my kids will step up to the bimah (pulpit) and become bar mitzvah boys, which is a huge lifecycle event. Between now and then, practising with them will be another part of my to-do list. Good study habits mean you do a little every day until, suddenly, you learn something new. Just like my lists, nothing is insurmountable if you name it, take it step by step, and cross it off the list when the task is complete.

Like many women, I get bogged down by the minutiae. I wish I could share more of the household labour and emotional load. Even men who try to assume more of these tasks have to struggle against the societal expectations our culture wields. Step by step, we make change in our lives, our lists and our expectations for one another. It’s not a sprint. You can’t cram the night before to pass this exam. Life is a series of chores, moments, obligations and, well, joys.

Early this morning, I leashed up the dog while I sang the first Haftorah blessing aloud. I try to put the melody into the twins’ heads while donning my shoes and raincoat as I head out. Each step makes a difference to hopefully hit one very big milestone ahead.

Joanne Seiff has written regularly for CBC Manitoba and various Jewish publications. She is the author of three books, including From the Outside In: Jewish Post Columns 2015-2016, a collection of essays available for digital download or as a paperback from Amazon. Check her out on Instagram @yrnspinner or at joanneseiff.blogspot.com.

Treatise on war, peace

Left to right: Tom Pickett, Advah Soudack, Kate Besworth and Karthik Kadam in Bard on the Beach’s production of Shakespeare’s Henry V, which runs to Aug. 13. (photo by Tim Matheson)

Bard on the Beach rarely presents Shakespeare’s history plays. The last time Vancouver audiences were treated to one of the House of Lancaster trilogies was in 2011. Like Julius Caesar, currently playing on the Mainstage, Henry V is a timely production, based on world events. Unlike Julius Caesar, which is set in modern times, director Lois Anderson has envisioned the setting for Henry V as an indeterminate time in a wartorn future.

In Henry V, there is a device Shakespeare often used – a play within a play. A traveling troupe of nine actors, seeking shelter from a raging storm, suitcases in hand, arrives in an apocalyptic time to present their version of Henry V. Their ultimate message: make love, not war.

When Henry IV died, his 16-year-old son, Prince Hal, ascended to the throne of England. His father had, on his deathbed, made it clear to his son that, to take on the crown responsibilities, he had to give up his profligate lifestyle and his association with the lower-class tavern set, including his mentor Falstaff. Once on the throne, and taking government matters seriously, Henry V is surrounded by ambitious advisors who encourage him to invade France as part of the ongoing Hundred Years War between the two countries. Reluctant at first, the arrival of an emissary at his court with a “gift” of tennis balls (analogous to a slap in the face) from the cocky French Prince, the Dauphin, convinces Henry to go to war.

On the battlefield, Henry comes of age, transitioning from an impressionable youth to a fierce leader of men. Although vastly outnumbered, the English are ultimately successful in the 1415 Battle of Agincourt, spurred on by Henry’s rousing now-iconic call to arms: “We few, we happy few, we band of brothers; for he today that sheds his blood with me shall be my brother.”

As part of the boy-to-man transition, Henry takes a hard line with his tavern pals, who have also joined the fight for king and country – condemning one to death for stealing a loaf of bread and eschewing the pleas for reconciliation from a dying Falstaff.

The audience is guided through the story by a narrator, the Chorus, who welcomes us to “the show” and provides numerous asides that give context and meaning to what is happening on stage, both in the action and in Henry’s mind (manifested by flashbacks to his carefree days of youth).

All the cast, save for the eponymous lead, play multiple roles and Anderson has chosen to always keep the actors on stage. When not involved in a scene, they sit off to the side. Costume changes take place right in front of the audience. The intimate Douglas Campbell Theatre allows for this up-close-and-personal action.

The women in this production are standouts. Jewish community member Advah Soudack not only acts, doing double-duty portraying Mistress Quickly (one of the tavern denizens) and the emissary Mountjoy, but also has a chance to show off her vocal skills with a haunting solo. Newcomer Marlee Griffiths is simply delightful as the French princess Katharine, especially as she practises English with her maid. Emilie Leclerc is both the narrator and French Queen Isabelle, and makes her Bard debut with a strong performance.

Kate Besworth plays Henry V in a gender reversal. Anderson’s vision encompasses the insecurity and angst of a teenager suddenly placed in charge of a country at war, who must make decisions with far-reaching consequences. Yet that same youth can be painfully shy when it comes to wooing, winning and wedding Princess Katherine (a strategic alliance that helps broker peace between the warring nations). Diminutive Besworth ably portrays these two sides of Henry’s character.

Among the male actors, Billy Marchenski is a tough Exeter; Craig Erickson, Henry IV; Tom Pickett, the King of France; and Karthik Kadam, the Dauphin. Munish Sharma gets to play with the role of portly Falstaff.

However, the real stars in this rendering are the designers. Kudos to all of them, starting with Jewish community member Amir Ofek in charge of the set design. In the program notes, he writes, “Director Lois Anderson and myself reimagined this production as an immersive audience experience that starts from the moment you enter the performance space.” He certainly accomplished this goal. When you step through the front tent flap, you are transported into a futuristic sepia-and-earth-tone world, chairs haphazardly stacked, looking like they are about to fall over (a metaphor for the chaos of the world), and an inner tent made of burlap sacks stitched together (scavenged from various local coffee shops), all atop a cracked, parched dirt floor. You really do feel like you are in a tent in the middle of a battlefield. The chairs are used to represent everything from beds to thrones to canons to barricades to weapons.

Mara Gottler’s costumes reflect the “anytime and no time” design mandate she was given and lend themselves to the quick on-stage changes. She wanted to “convey a visual narrative of war and love,” and accomplishes this with different colour palettes for the French and English courts and the tavern gang. Sophie Tang’s lighting, together with Joelysa Pankanea’s musical score, complete the effect. Original songs for the troupe add a novel layer to the production and choreographer/fight director Jonathan Hawley Purvis deserves a mention for the clever battle scenes.

Anderson’s vision is certainly a treatise on the evils – and inevitability – of war, yet still holds out a glimmer of hope for redemption through love.

Henry V runs until Aug. 13. For tickets, visit bardonthebeach.org or call the box office, 604-739-0559.

Tova Kornfeld is a Vancouver freelance writer and lawyer.