The physical stuff, the kids, and relationships at 64… or is it 66?

Barbara Moser

Talking to Susan Freedman is like talking to an old friend. The last time we spoke was just before the Montreal Fringe five years ago. At the time we spoke about her second play Sixty With More Lies About My Weight, titled after her first play in 1999 entitled Fifty-Seven and Still Lying About My Weight. Now she’s back with less of a vengeance in her third installment, Sixty Four and No More Lies, and as she put it on the phone from her home in Vancouver, she’s “a bit more thoughtful and vulnerable.”

“After my other shows, people would say, ‘she has no problems,’ but after this one, they’re going to say, ‘she has problems.’”

Freedman has just turned 66 but kept the title because she wrote the play two years ago.

Although we are seven years apart, Susan and I share the same worries. “Physical problems are definitely a part of aging – and a part of the show,” she said. And then, there are “the kids” (actually in their 30s) and how they talk to us and “react” to everything – or over-react.

“They can only act like kids with us,” Freedman says. “They do it when they’re 30 or 35 because, in lots of cases, they’re still single and at their age, we were probably married and had a kid. This generation is very different.

“You can’t say a goddamn thing because everything you say is wrong,” she says. “If you say things that upset them, they respond, and everything you say upsets them.”

In her third 45-minute one-woman show coming to the Fringe this June, Freedman will “ruminate on life” in the context of feeling chest pains.

After blood work and X-rays, being angry at her husband and kids about not being there for her, and rationalizing about how the pain must be from something she did at the gym, her character reminisces about her life and makes “strong references to the rocks in the path.”

What does this theatrical expert on aging say about other relationships such as marriage?

“I’m an incorrigible optimist,” she says. “I’ve been married three times. You realize it’s about letting things go. Not reacting to everything.”

Like our kids do.

Sixty Four and No More Lies is at the Fringe June 13 to 22 at Geordie Space, 4001 Berri. Tickets are $9.

It's all in the bag at the Fringe

Three old bags (photo: Robert Ménard)

Barbara Moser

What is there about bags and ladies, especially old ladies, that go together? Three women “of a certain age” explore this theme in their play Three Old Bags, playing at the Fringe Festival this month.

“We all knew each other and we wanted to do something together,” said Gissa Israel, one of the three actors/writers, from her home in Knowlton. Israel and her contemporaries, Pina Macku and Emma Stevens, all in their 60s, performed the play at Theatre Lac-Brome last summer. The characters they play are in their 80s. Could this be because these actors don’t see themselves as “old bags?” Only the director, Mary Harvey, is a “young bag,” Israel said.

“We carry our life in our bags,” Israel said of the double-entendre theme, which includes the notion of bag ladies. But Israel doesn’t see the connotations as negative.

The message is hopeful, she said. “These three characters never give up. Each one has a situation in their lives that would make her want to give up.

“The hope is that there’s a renewed interest in life. It’s about renewal and it’s about friendship.”

Bring your bags to the performances Saturday, June 14 to Sunday, June 22. For the full performance schedule call 514-849-FEST or visit montrealfringe.ca.

Three Old Bags will also be “in the bag” at Piggery Theatre from Wednesday, July 2 to Thursday, August 14. To reserve call 819-842-2431.

Victoriaville festival celebrates 25th

Barbara Moser

Saxophonist Roscoe Mitchell (photo: FIMAV)

Every year, the town of Victoriaville, once famous for producing hockey sticks, draws hundreds from across North America for a five-day festival that celebrates Musique Actuelle.

Musicians also flock there, eager to participate in what is considered a premiere showcase for music that pushes the conventional envelope beyond accepted norms of harmony, melody and rhythm.

No, you will not hear Norah Jones or Paul Anka at this 25th Festival International de Musique Actuelle de Victoriaville, which gets underway May 15 in the town, halfway between Drummondville and Quebec City.

What you will get is a broad range of music that can be classed as musique actuelle, a term invented to embrace creative music that ranges from free jazz and improvised music to electronica, Noise, vocals, alternative rock – even a group or two that could be classified as folk.

The variety is astounding, considered without equal in its scope and the level of the musicians.

This year’s lineup was conceived as a retrospective and includes some stellar performers who have given Victo its reputation.

The regulars who attend include a Calgary physician, a McGill University mathematician who develops models in the Faculty of Medicine, and a saxophone player from Niagara Falls, NY. Part of the fun is walking from one venue to the next, chatting about the highlights – and lowlights.

There are plenty of fine concerts to choose from among the 23 shows. Visitors can always choose a combination that can be included in a package. For $99 a person, you can see two concerts, plus a night in the Hotel Villegia, double occupancy with breakfast the next morning. A range of accommodations includes camping.

The festival opens Thursday, May 15 with pioneering Montreal-based saxophonist/composer Jean Derome and a dozen of the city's best-known improv musicians with two pieces, including a tribute to Victo.

Fans will welcome the return of saxophonist John Zorn, who rose to prominence with his virtuosity and unique combination of Jewish-sounding themes and avant-garde harmonics. Zorn leads a sextet at 10pm in his “The Dreamers” project, recorded this fall on his Tzadik label, with guitarist Marc Ribot, drummer Joey Baron and Kenny Wollesen on vibraphone, and percussionist Cyro Baptista.

Zorn plays again Friday at 10pm, blowing that battered horn and leading his hard-edged Moonchild project, featuring experimental rock vocalist and guitarist Mike Patton.

Two other shows earlier Friday should be fascinating: Montreal guitarist Tim Brady presents three works for electric guitar, digital processing and tape at 1pm, accompanied by video, and then a “double quartet” tribute to the great Dmitri Shostakovich.

Then at 8pm, improvising electric guitarist Fred Frith premiers his Cosa Brava ensemble featuring violinist Carla Kihlstedt, accordion player Zeena Parkins, and drummer Matthias Bossi. Oh, they all sing. Skipping to Sunday, Shanghai-born Xu Fengzia returns for a 5pm gig with her zither-like guzheng, accompanied by German violinist Gunda Gottschalk.

Jazz fans will not want to miss two exciting shows Sunday. Saxophonist/pocket trumpeter Joe McPhee leads a quartet of European musicians at 8pm.

Roscoe Mitchell, a founder of Chicago’s ground- breaking Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians, plays at 10pm with a double quartet that includes such exceptional performers as pianist Vijay Iyer and trumpeter Corey Wilkes.

Electric guitarist René Lussier kicks off Monday's triple bill, with turntablists Martin Tetreault and Otomo Yoshihide, who may also play guitar.

You may not like it all, but there is a lot of choice.

For the full lineup, ticket and accommodation information, go to fimav.qc.ca.

Bialystock, a sad town in Poland

Barbara Moser

From Vilnius we moved on by train to Bialystock. We were on our way to Budapest, where we had a plane to catch for Israel. We planned to go back through Warsaw and take a train from Warsaw to Budapest. Then we would spend two weeks in Israel. We decided Bialystock would be a good place to spend a day or two. We had grown up hearing the name although we had no family roots there. We were interested in seeing another Polish town, one where many Jews had once lived and flourished.

Bialystock is a town that looks like the heart has been cut out of it. It's pleasant enough. There are cafés and a modern hotel right in the middle of town. There are pretty streets and people living out their lives in peace, but the town is too quiet, too calm.

Seventy thousand Jews lived in Bialystock before the Holocaust. There was a town square where they traded, whole neighbourhoods where they lived, a fish market, a massive synagogue. Now there is a lot of empty space.

We took a tour with young lady who knows all about the Jews who once lived here. She is not Jewish but she is interested in how our people lived and died in this town. She and her friends do their best to look after the cemetery which is on the outskirts of town. There is hardly a gravestone that has not been desecrated. We walk through the shambles, the tombs stretching out in their jagged shapes as far as the eye can see. She tells us that the "neighbours" have stolen as many grave stones as they could carry to be used as foundations for the apartments they have built in the area surrounding the cemetery.

The children of these Jews, buried on these grounds, cannot look after their graves. They are the victims of the Nazis and they have no graves. She takes us to the site of the synagogue. On one night, the Nazis forced 2,000 Jews into this synagogue. Then, they set fire to it. They tried to climb out of the windows. They were pushed back in. Men, women, and children, burned alive.

We stood on the site of this synagogue. It is in an apartment complex. There are gardens for children to play. There is a twisted structure, a memorial to the 2,000 who perished here where we are standing. How can we be standing here so peacefully? Where are the ashes? Where are the graves? The memorial has some graffiti on it. No different from Vilnius, we think.

It's hard to know what to feel.

We walk along the main street. In one of the windows of a tourist shop we see paintings of Chassidic men counting money by candlelight. Men wearing prayer shawls counting gold coins. I enter the shop. I ask the man behind the counter if he understands what he is selling. "You Jews caused us trouble for hundreds of years. What do you want from us now?" I leave the store. I am angry, can't speak, don't know what to say, what to feel, what to think, except: They still hate us. We're gone from this place, we're all dead here. What or whom do they hate?

We walk through streets of wooden houses. She tells us these were once the houses of Jews. They are to be torn down to make way for a new shopping centre. This was the site of the fish market.

Bialystock is a sad place. There is a heaviness here. It is everywhere.

We have a quiet dinner at the hotel. We try to pretend we are tourists. But what we have seen is never far from our minds.

Why have we come? We have come to bear witness to the dead, to those souls who died in that torched synagogue. But we will not go back to Poland. It is enough. It is too much.

My family in Havana

Barbara Moser

I have kept a secret from many of you for the past three years — I have another family. They are in Havana, Cuba, and I have just returned from my 5^th visit with them.

Almost hidden from view on a narrow street in Old Havana at Acosta and Picota streets is the Adath Israel Synagogue, an Orthodox Jewish community. Most Jewish visitors to Havana do not realize that there are actually three synagogues housing three distinct Jewish communities in Havana, representing the Conservative, Sephardic and Orthodox branches of Judaism.

The main Jewish community centre, housed in the Conservative synagogue in Vedado, serves the largest community. It includes a Sunday School and its leaders are responsible for youth programs, and arranging exit visas for Cuban Jews wishing to emigrate to Israel or take trips to Israel such as March of the Living, sponsored by the Joint Distribution Committee. They are also well connected with Jewish communities in the US and Canada, in particular the Canadian Jewish Congress.

My favorite community is the Adath Israel, or as it is known in Spanish, the Communidad Relgiosa Hebrea Adath Israel de Cuba. Yakov and Yamilet, a young married couple who are leaders of the community — Yakov refers to himself on documents as the treasurer, shohet (ritual slaughterer of Kosher meat) and cantor — have always welcomed me as family and allowed me to distribute much-needed cash donations and clothing, toiletries, and toys directly to their members. This way I know exactly who is receiving what I have brought. Over the times I have visited, I've learned shoe size and special needs for clothing and medication. Each time I visit, I try to improve the way I give out what I have brought. This time, I contributed $100 towards a Purim Party (Purim is a Jewish holiday celebrated in March) and with Yamilet's help, prepared 150-200 gift bags, each with a piece of clothing or underwear or toiletries for more than 60 children.

In the past I have collected cash from my friends here and given it out to people hand to hand along with clothing and toys. This time, I concentrated on clothing and toys.

The community is also a meeting place for Jewish seniors who eat breakfast at the synagogue as well as a snack in the evening after services. One day I bought ice cream for everyone at the evening services. It cost me $24 to serve a big portion of strawberry or chocolate ice cream to over 60 people — a good investment in bonding!

Speaking of bonding, while we in North American Jewish communities suffer from assimilation through intermarriage, Cubans who marry Jews are converting to Judaism in record numbers and enjoying the feeling that a close-knit community brings for their chidren and their extended families. So when you help "a Jew" in Cuba, you are helping many others who are not Jewish. With the Jewish population of Cuba at 900, it's difficult not to intermarry!

The average monthly salary in Cuba is approximately $12, and for pensioners it is closer to $8. From this, people are expected to pay 50 cents for a bar of soap,  $1.20 for toothpaste, $3 for shampoo, and for clothes, the prices are very similar to Canada. So you can imagine how much my friends appreciate a new piece of clothing, a toy, a bar of soap, shampoo, or a piece of costume jewellery.

Since 1990, Jews have been allowed to practice their faith and their culture openly and freely. They do so with a joy and enthusiasm that I have never seen in countries where Jews have always had this right. Holidays are celebrated with passion and pride. On Purim, as is the custom, the children of the congregation dressed up in costume and were treated to a clown and puppet show. These are almost ordinary occurrences for our children and grandchildren, but to see the rapturous looks on the faces of these children is to understand how much this community means to them.

My friends have asked me why I go back so often. Perhaps if you look at my pictures, you will understand. Or perhaps you will have to see for yourself. The next time you're planning a trip to Varadero, change your plans to Havana. It's a city full of culture and beauty. Here you will meet real people and begin to understand how they live. Try to bring more than a few small toiletries for the maids. Below is a list of what you could bring and distribute to people at the Adath Israel and to other Cubans that you meet or befriend outside your hotels.

Next issue, I will try to provide more information on the cultural activities and sights Havana has to offer.

• What to bring:
• small toys from the dollar stores including hair bands and ponytail holders
• small toy cars (nearly new or new)
• socks, underwear and bras
• sneakers and sandals for all ages, new or nearly new 
• t-shirts, shorts and skirts (only light summer wear) for all ages, new or nearly new
• colognes, costume jewellery, sewing supplies, small pieces of material for doll making, soaps, toothbrushes, toothpaste, and dental floss (ask your dentist for samples)
• samples of medication from your doctor — in short supply are blood pressure medication, syringes, and pain medication of any kind.

If you have these things to donate but can't make it down to Havana yourself, please bring them to The Senior Times offices at 4077 Decarie Blvd. (corner NDG Ave.) or call our office at 514-484-5033. I'll be sure to take them on my next trip to Havana and they'll go directly to the hands of people who need and deserve our support.

Contact Adath Israel at adathisrael@enet.cu.