Consciousness, Literature and the Arts
Archive
Volume 11 Number 3, December 2010
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JAKE’S GIFT
at Manitoba Theatre for Young People, 2010
it is two weeks before Remembrance Day and the flags
are accompanied by pipe playing “Highland Cathedral”
before the show
with its gift of three characters from one Julia Mackey
who shifts between their gestures voices and stances
sharp and quick delineations
the old Canadian veteran, Jake
a tremor in his left arm and grumpy resilience in his voice
the statuesque French grandmother
who teaches good manners
and the art of remembrance to her granddaughter
the curious and rambunctious Isabelle
simplicity is the name of the game
this is about actor and lights
that shape space and body
aura-like against black curtains
Jake’s memory is personal
he fought along with his brothers and lost
one of them at Juno Beach
Isabelle is ten and is building memories
of her grandmother and now of Jake
her reach goes back before her birth
to when Grandmother was a girl of ten
named Isabelle who lost her father
to a Nazi bullet
this is also the Shabbat of Chaye Sarah
when we remember Sarah’s life and Abraham’s
buying her burial site and the new life he must enter
this is no one’s memory but is remembered
as an act of culture - how we become identities
and this evening we become Canadians again
(because to take hold identity must be ever replayed)
with the help of an invented ten-year old French girl
on a nearly bare stage playing Juno Beach
paying our respects to those in whose deaths we live
as not American, not British, not French,
but as a different, blended pride
weather and geography play their part, too
we are reminded as we head into the first snow
glittering in the street lights