The touching documentary drama We Keep Coming Back is coming to London’s artsdepot as part of the venue’s Canada Season. Selfconscious Productions from Toronto are taking audiences on a soul-baring search for the complex reality of Jewish lives in contemporary Poland.
We Keep Coming Back tells the mostly true story of an odyssey to Poland that a son (Michael Rubenfeld) and mother (Mary Berchard) – both descendants of Polish-Jewish Holocaust survivors – took while accompanied by Katka Reszke (Polish-Jewish scholar and author of Return of the Jew) as their guide. The trip is set in motion when Mary suddenly takes ill, and Michael, in hope of healing their struggling relationship, suggests that returning to Poland to find their lost histories could help them mend.
His theory is that their lack of connection to their country of origin – Poland – is a contributing factor to the lack of connection to each other. The plot, however, takes an unexpected turn when Michael and Mary discover a vibrant contemporary world of Jewish revival in Poland. Unbeknownst to them, many Poles in contemporary Poland are looking for lost Jewish identities, and are, in fact, returning to their Jewish roots. At its heart, We Keep Coming Back is an investigation into the impact that histories – both inherited and hidden – have on subsequent generations – and how the unravelling of stereotypes create space for possible futures.
We Keep Coming Back is a complex, soul-baring, and often very humorous performance that takes audiences deep into the genuine traumas of the post-war generations using documentary storytelling, archival video and projection design. It is performed by Michael Rubenfeld and Mary Berchard – real-life son and mother – and Katka Reszke. During the piece, each investigate and share the traumas they themselves continue to negotiate in real-time. The piece is structured, however not fully scripted, creating ongoing space for new discovery amidst a narrative that is impossible to contain. It is deeply intimate and as beautiful as it is uncomfortable.
“This is an event designed for all those who have the courage to ask “who am I?” through the eyes of others. And above all, it’s by the compassionate gaze of others who listen to our story, no matter what they say, that we learn that we exist.” Joël Beddows, Artistic Director of Toronto French Theatre
We Keep Coming Back is at artsdepot 1st to 4th November 2018.
