The Young People’s Theatre (YPT) is opening its 50th season with Hana’s Suitcase, a show it’s produced three times before. But it’s a play that has endured despite premiering more than 10 years ago. 

“Hana’s Suitcase can be both a timeless and timely story,” says playwright Emil Sher, who adapted Karen Levine’s best-selling and award-winning novel for YPT back in 2005. 

Since then, the theatre company remounted it in 2007 and 2010, sharing the Brady family’s poignant Holocaust story on stage for children ages 10 and up. 

Those who’ve read Levine’s book know that despite its inherent darkness, Hana’s Suitcase is rather inspiring as it chronicles how in 2000, a group of Japanese school kids and their teacher searched for clues about Hana Brady (played by Caroline Toal) after her suitcase arrived at Tokyo’s tiny Children’s Holocaust Centre. 

“It’s such a beautiful and moving and vital kind of story,” says YPT’s artistic director Allen MacInnis, who’s also directing the play. “And I felt that our 50th anniversary should include it. And as we planned the season, it became clear that we should open the season with it so that we could make it available to tour to other places.” After its run in Toronto, it’ll travel to Montreal and later, Seattle. 

MacInnis knows that teaching about the Holocaust can be challenging. But this play is made for younger audiences and it follows the Japanese children as they slowly uncover details about Hana’s short life. 

“We assume that the audience, which is about the same age, is able to handle what they learn,” says MacInnis. “We certainly don’t get into some of the most horrifying details about the Holocaust, but we do get into many of the facts.”

They learn that the Nazis forced Hana Brady and her family out of their home in Czechoslovakia to the Theresienstadt ghetto. Eventually, Hana ended up in Auschwitz where she died at age 13. Her brother George Brady (played by Noah Spitzer) survived and he currently resides in Toronto. 

Thousands of children’s drawings also survived Theresienstadt, including some of Hana’s. These are incorporated into YPT’s show. 

“In our production, periodically we’re using photographs and copies of those drawings just to connect the story for our young audience to the fact that it is also something of a documentary, that it’s not just a story; it is a true story,” says MacInnis. 

Sher was also mindful of that when first adapting the play. He even sought out George Brady’s feedback. “I felt a huge sense of responsibility to honour the story with all the respect it deserves,” says Sher. 

That included ending it on a hopeful note. “It would have been hopeless if Hana’s story would have died with her in Auschwitz,” says Sher. 

Once again, a new generation of children can come to know Hana and George Brady. And beyond simply learning about them, young audiences will get the opportunity to discuss the story in a question and answer period following each performance.

Both Sher and MacInnis know that the show’s themes will resonate with children today, especially amidst the ongoing refugee crisis. Ultimately, they hope audiences can learn from the Japanese children who felt so connected to Hana Brady. 

“The fact that they could come to care so much about her creates such a story of hope,” says MacInnis, “that maybe the next generation of children will be the kind of people that will ensure our world never does this again.” 

Hana’s Suitcase runs until Oct. 30 at the Young People’s Theatre in Toronto. For tickets call 416-862-2222 or visit www.youngpeoplestheatre.ca.