The Midnight Train Crossing

So beings another season at First Stage. This time around they started off with a serious story, based on the book of the same name.
A teacher in Japan, running a museum on the Holocaust from world war two, and her class receive some artifacts from a concentration camp. One of the artifacts is a suitcase labeled: Hana Brady, Orphan.
With her students, they go on an investigation to find out what happened to Hana, so they can tell her story to the rest of the world.

Of course the first thing that I always notice is the set. My first response to the set was that it was pretty. In the center of the stage was a tile floor with a table and three chairs, around that was a small river filled with water, with a bridge over it to a wooden walk way. I know that part of the story takes place in Japan, and I thought that set made it look rather Japanese. The back wall was covered in shelves containing old things, books, and drawings.

They also projected things on the back wall, but there was already so much stuff on the wall that the projections were very difficult to see, so I started ignoring them.

The story shifts back and forth between modern day Japan, and Czechoslovakia in the 1940s. I thought this was very cleverly handled. The teacher, Fumiko (Haruna Tsuchiya) and the two students, Maiko (Pahoua Vang - who hails from my old high school!) and Akira (Touly Vang) wore brightly colored clothes while the people in the past wore duller colored clothing. Hana (Jessica Schmeling) and her family wore duller colors (Although Hana did wear yellow...). I thought that was a nice touch.

Another nice touch was the fact that during the entire first act, Hana and the other people of the past would just drift silently across the stage without speaking. I thought that made sense because Fumiko and her students didn't know much about her yet, and the whole story was pretty much told from their point of view.

Something that was minorly creepy was the fact that apart from Hana, all of the other characters in the "past" wore clothing in various shades of gray, and rather creepy expressionless masks. Somebody asked about that during the talk back and the reason they did it that way was to make it so that the people playing the other Jewish people or the Nazis weren't playing anyone in particular, they were representing all of the people involved.

I adored Akira to pieces. He did a great job playing a boy who was curious about everything. He and Maiko were well matched and did a good job playing off each other as she could continue to get exasperated by his endless questions, and then his doubting her when she did answer.
"What did she look like? Where was she from? How old was she? Did she have a family? Did she have any pets?" and most importantly "What happened to her?"
The minor arguments between Akira and Maiko added humor to an otherwise very serious show. There was one silly line where Akira and Maiko are planning what they are going to do and he says that now he can tell his grandmother that he's good for something else besides getting into trouble.
Pahoua Vang, the actress that played Maiko had very long hair to rival mine.

Their teacher, Fumiko was very nicely played by Haruna Tsuchiya overall. Fueled by the curiosity of her students she helps them do all sorts of research to find out about Hana. But on the other hand, she is sensible enough to ask them repeatedly if they are sure that they want to know Hana's story... after all, it could have a sad ending. Lots of children died in the holocaust.

Fumiko follows the trail to a ghetto where lots of drawings by children were discovered, including some from Hana. She went to the site of the ghetto (Cuz she was conveniently going to London for something, so she just stopped off in Prague) where they now have a museum and with the aid of a frazzled looking museum worker, found Hana's name on a list. She notices that there is a check mark next to Hana's name, and she asks what it means.
The woman tells her that the checkmarks mean that they did not survive. But, Hana had a brother George... who did survive.
Fumiko follows a trail, searching for a friend of George's. She goes to visit a friend at a different museum.
This scene looked a little silly, because it was this stern looking woman who looked more like she fit in with the 1940s crew rather than the modern day group, but she was chatting on a cellphone.

The only minor complaint I have about Fumiko was during this scene when she was very close to finding Hana's older brother. She was on the phone trying to get through to a man that might have known him. I realize that she was caught up in the chase and was desperate to find something out considering how close she was, but it was a little over the top. Then again, maybe it was meant to be... I'm not sure.

In the second act, Akira is very upset to find out what happened to Hana. He doesn't want to hear what happened to her now that he knows that she died, but Fumiko and Maiko convince him that it's still worthwhile to know what happened... so they can do all they can to prevent it from happening again.

George Baker sends Fumiko a letter and several old photographs, and for the first time, they get to see what Hana looked like. Fumiko starts to read the letter he sent, telling them all about Hana.

Now Hana, her brother George (Zach Schley) and their parents take center stage and Fumiko and co sit off to the side.
Finally, the people in the past speak. Again I thought that seemed logical, since now Fumiko-tachi are finding out what really happened.

Hana's parents were amusing, and well played. I liked her father, Karel Brady (Richard Ganoung) during the scenes when things were good, when they would go skiing or just play games.
There were some silly scenes between the siblings, like a snowball fight. Every Sunday they would go visit their cousins because Sunday was family day. Hana had a good line "But my friend is just like family"
To which her mother responded: "Yes, and our cousin is even more like family"

Things were good for the family and then things started getting difficult... and then bad... and then worse.
First they weren't permitted to do things they liked, and then their mother was arrested and sent off to a concentration camp, and then their father, along with all of the rest of the Jewish men were sent off, and then finally Hana and her brother were.

The scene in which their mother said goodbye to them was the main part of the show that brought tears to my eyes. Mr and Mrs Brady knew what was going on, they had heard about what happened in Germany and other countries, so when Hana and George kept asking her when she was coming back, it seemed that both parents knew she was not... And I think that somehow, the kids knew it too. So that scene made me teary (writing about it is also making me teary again...). I think it did because it made Fumiko teary as well... I thought it was nicely done that during that scene she sort of gathered Akira and Maiko a little closer.

So Hana and George lived in a ghetto that I can't even hope to spell for two years, where Hana went to a secret school and George learned to be a plumber.
As the Nazis started to lose the war, they stepped things up a notch and started moving more and more people to the concentration camps.
First George was sent, leaving Hana alone.

He said in his letter that he never saw her again... After the war was over, he tried to find out what happened to her. A few weeks after he was sent to the camp, so was she.
Hana was a little girl, not very useful to the Nazis as slave labor, so... when she got off the train she was sent off to the right... to the gas chamber.

This was done very dramatically, but not over-drama. I think it did a fitting tribute to the serious subject matter. Hana stood there in the center of the stage, and they brought up a single white light behind her. She set her suitcase down and then walked off into the light.

Akira and Maiko decide that they have to do something now that they know this story... so they form a group called Small Wings, where they decide to send out a newsletter telling all about their museum and Hana's story to children all over Japan, so that everyone knows.

The final scene of the play is when they decide that a good tribute to Hana and the other children that died is to put on a play about them, and take their show on the road from school to school. Maiko will play Hana and Akira will play George.
Their first audience? Fumiko and George Brady, now an old man. When George arrived it was another tear-jerking scene, as he stared at Hana's suitcase almost reverently.

The play ends where it begins, with all the focus on a little red suitcase with the words: "Hana Brady, Orphan" printed on it.