Published: 25 October 2019
Last updated: 4 March 2024
Described as a “a refugee love story”, it is in many ways an ode to family.
It is also, to be blunt, a global hit. After premiering in Canada in 2017, it has been performed in Sydney, New York, and has just finished a hugely successful run at Wilton’s Music Hall in London.
The play takes place in 1908 Halifax, Canada, but the play’s success demonstrates that its questions about what it takes to leave your home and build another life in a distant land have powerful relevance with today’s audiences.
Ben Caplan is a folk singer songwriter from Halifax and took the role in London as the Wanderer, the singing narrator. “When we set out to make Old Stock, our first goal was not to tell a Jewish story,” says Caplan, one of the two composers who wrote the songs for Old Stock.
“It was to tell a human story. We started writing this piece in 2015 largely in response to the Syrian Refugee Crisis. We on the creative team were deeply troubled by the dehumanizing way in which migrants and refugees were being discussed in the media and in the political sphere.
The evidence is clear that when we allow people to integrate into our societies, they choose to do so. We must have the courage to allow them to do so without demanding they give up their own complex and layered identities.
“We chose to use a Jewish story because that was our story to tell. I think part of what makes the work so poignant is the obvious parallels between the experiences and struggles of Jewish migrants fleeing European violence in the late 1800s and early 1900s and the experiences of migrants today, be they fleeing conflict zones in the middle east, or any number of other destabilised places in the world.”
Off-stage Caplan is known for integrating different musical genres and in the play his songs are accompanied by an orchestra playing a mix of Yiddish klezmer and traditional folk music.
“I think that we have a deep responsibility to share the same opportunities with fresh waves of migrants despite the old familiar song that these new "others" have an essential character that will prevent them from integrating,” he says.
“We have heard that argument before. It was not true about my great grandparents, and it is not true today. The overwhelming majority of people just want safety, stability, and hope for their children.”
“The evidence is clear that when we allow people to integrate into our societies, they choose to do so. We must have the courage to allow them to do so without demanding they give up their own complex and layered identities.”
When the play was brought to stage in Canada in 2017 it received rave reviews which have continued with each performance. “I think that this is in part because we have achieved the goal of representing the migrants in our story as complex, flawed, and lovable individuals,” says Caplan.
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“They are able to remind us of ourselves, of our parents, and of our grandparents. They also remind us that the nameless and faceless sea of humanity that is knocking on our door, asking to be let in, is actually a collection of individuals with their own traumas, fears, hopes, and dreams.”
Reflecting on the current state of the world, Caplan said “In this time of social and political upheaval, the story is unfortunately only getting more relevant. Despite our best hopes, the themes in this play seem to get more important with each passing day.”
This relevance began in the first step of the play’s existence. For many Canadians the title echoes the phrase “Old Stock Canadians” used by Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper in the run-up to the 2015 election. His assertion was that “Old Stock Canadians” did not wish to pay for healthcare for refugees.
According to the play’s composer, Christopher Barry, this statement had a huge resonance on the play. “It was his use of this arbitrary divider “Old Stock Canadians” that sent a chill down my spine. Where was he drawing the line? One generation? Two? Three? Sure, the only true “Old Stock” Canadians are indigenous Canadians, but I don’t think this is who he meant.”
“Sadly, the plight of refugees coming to Canada today is not very dissimilar to that of Jewish refugees coming to Canada in the anti-Semitic climate of Canada in 1908. The xenophobia and islamophobia displayed in the rhetoric of today’s politicians is not far removed from the “None is too many” tone of the early 20th century.
“The political “othering” that Stephen Harper employed in 2015 is as pervasive in Canadian and in international politics today as it was then.”
As the play has run throughout Europe, Canada, the US and Australia, Barry says the cast has encountered audiences and artists from all these places who have recognised their own story.
“Jewish audiences have seen their grandparents and great grand-parents experiences reflected back to them. And refugees of all backgrounds have told us how perfectly this play embodies their own experiences as well.”
The play has been performed in Ottawa during this week’s Canadian elections, where Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was narrowly returned to power. After that, it will tour Halifax, Vancouver, Calgary, and Toronto and later to Washington, Boston, Shanghai, and Moscow.
If this relentless demand is any guide, it seems that Old Stock exudes something closer to the fountain of youth.
Photo: scene from the recent London production
