Our favourites Chatterbox Productions and Spring Lane Productions have teamed up in association with the Jews Schmooze programme and the Institute for Conflict Research to bring you the world premiere of The Suitcase to the Belfast Synagogue, Somerton Road as part of the Ulster Bank International Arts Festival.
In 1930s Vienna, a young girl dreams of becoming a dancer.
In 2014 in Belfast, an elderly man revisits his painful past.
In the present day, a bereaved family unearths a suppressed, long-hidden history in its Belfast home.
Written by Jane Coyle and directed by Elise McNicholas, the play is inspired by Coyle’s trip last year to the Jewish Museum in Vienna and brings together three interlocking storylines which span 70 years of history across Europe.
Set between the present day and some of the darkest years of the 20th century, four characters from different times, places and generations, navigate a path through issues of cultural identity, persecution, resilience and hope.
The storyline evolves around a modern day Belfast family, in which sometimes difficult relationships surface and are examined. As the past seeps into the present, conversations and recollections are haunted by the spectre of a young Jewish woman, caught up in cataclysmic events beyond her control.
Featuring live music and taking place during the year which marks the 70th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau and Belsen concentration camps – this atmospheric play will be presented in the poignant surroundings of the Belfast Synagogue.
As Coyle explains, the story was inspired by a visit last year to the Jewish Museum in Vienna:
“The first exhibit in the permanent collection is a small leather suitcase, with the name of a woman from Berlin written on it. The reason it’s in a museum in Vienna is because it was found in a house in the city after the death of an old man, who was a survivor of Terezin concentration camp. He used it to bring home his few remaining belongings. I was struck by the simple poignancy of the explanation and started thinking about what stories may lie inside a case with a similar history turning up in a house in Belfast.
“In the media coverage of the 70th anniversary of the liberation of the camps, I was very moved by the heartbreaking individual stories which emerged. They were told by ordinary people who had been caught up in unimaginable, inexplicable events. All of them had dreams and ambitions, hopes and aspirations, just like anyone else, but they were to amount to nothing. Yet out of the darkness, came little acts of kindness and compassion, inspiring examples of human goodness. I have tried to articulate my personal response to those real-life stories through the characters in the play.”
The play will run from 12 – 14 October with tickets costing either £10 or £8 and you can read more about it or book tickets here.
