A Remembrance legacy

For some the only connection they have with Remembrance Day is a poppy someone pushed on them in the mall; an all too brief service at the local cenotaph, followed by a parade.

And if you haven’t packed it in and gone home for lunch, then maybe you wander over to the Legion and hoist a few with the locals and listen in on a few stories.

But the stories are same as last year; the people are the same as last year, there seems to be a few less of them this year, and in the end it’s just another holiday over and you start preparing for Christmas.

A recurring concern among the former soldiers is that young people today have no appreciation for the events or outcome of the Second World War.

But for Vancouver actor-playwright Julia Mackey, Remembrance Day brings to mind several vivid scenes from her wanderings on the beaches of Normandy for D-Day’s 60th anniversary in June of 2004.

She attended the ceremonies as research for a script she was working on. She could never have predicted the deep effect it would have.

She spoke with veterans as they remembered, and the stories they shared with Julia and her own life-long interest in World War II and remembrance were the inspiration of Jake’s Gift.

Jake’s Gift tells the story of 80-year-old named Jake. A cantankerous 80-year-old Canadian World War II veteran who reluctantly returns to Normandy, France, for the 60th Anniversary of D-Day to find the grave of his eldest brother who was killed during the Battle of Normandy in 1944.

While revisiting the beach he’d landed on sixty years earlier, Jake encounters Isabelle, a precocious 10-year-old from the local village whose inquisitive nature and charm challenges the old soldier to confront some long-ignored ghosts.

At times, it’s easy to forget Jake’s Gift is a one-woman show. Mackey’s delivery is flawless, and her transition from playing a cantankerous Canadian veteran to a young French girl to the child’s grandmother is seamless.

Mackey doesn’t just play her characters, she becomes them; she has the walk of an elderly man and the energy of a precocious youngster.

“A lot of the themes are about loss, and I think Jake reminds them of their father, uncle, grandfather and Isabelle reminds them of their grandchildren or children,” Mackey said. “There is something about the connection between the two of them that is quite moving for people.”

CBC’s, Katie Nicholson calls Jake’s Gift, “the most theatrically pure show I have ever seen.”, and the Chronicle Herald says, “Mackey’s transformations bring war home.”

The Kitimat Concert Association is proud to present Julia Mackey’s Jake’s Gift, on stage at the Mountain Elizabeth Theatre, Friday, November 13. Showtime is 8:00 p.m.

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