Things My Dad Kept brings grief, humour, and a filing cabinet full of love to Chutzpah! Festival, November 4
Playwright Ronit Rubinstein’s solo show delves into her relationship with her late father through objects and memories he left behind
Things My Dad Kept. Art by benjamin lee hicks
The Chutzpah! Festival presents Things My Dad Kept at the Norman & Annette Rothstein Theatre on November 4 at 7:30 pm
RONIT RUBINSTEIN WAS helping her mother clean out their family home when she made an unexpected discovery: an archive of her entire family stored inside an unassuming filing cabinet.
It belonged to the playwright’s father, who passed away from cancer in 2012. His office was mostly left untouched for over a decade, but tucked away safely within those walls were endless files documenting every moment of each family member’s life—including that of his beloved daughter.
Ronit Rubinstein with her father, Mordechai Rubinstein.
On November 4, Rubinstein’s Things My Dad Kept will make its West Coast premiere at the Norman & Annette Rothstein Theatre as part of this year’s Chutzpah! Festival programming. Presented in partnership with the Vancouver Holocaust Education Centre, the one-woman show traces the artist’s personal journey of mourning, reflecting on her father’s experiences as a Holocaust survivor, her relationship with him, and the spontaneous nature of memory and grief. Her performance features humorous anecdotes, family history, and paper airplanes folded from images of her father’s files and thrown by the audience (a process that will also determine the chronology of the show).
Live description services will be available at Things My Dad Kept, presented as a Relaxed Performance with lower volume levels and dimmed lights.
Later in the week, on the morning of November 6, a storytelling workshop will take place at the Jewish Community Centre of Greater Vancouver. Presented in partnership with the JCC Adults & Older Adults Program, the event will be led by Rubinstein as she guides participants through the process of creating their own stories that can be cherished by their loved ones.
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