Ben
Caplan
Old Stock: A Refugee Love Story is a humorously dark folktale woven together with a high-energy concert.
This Klezmer-folk music-theater hybrid starring genre-bending sensation Ben Caplan is inspired by the true stories of two Jewish Romanian refugees coming to Canada in 1908. It's about how to love after being broken by the horrors of war. It's about refugees who get out before it's too late, and those who get out after it's too late. And it's about looking into the eyes of God.
Click Here to view photos of the Old Stock: A Refugee Love Story set.
Their work reflects the urban intellectual climate of their city, a city that boasts five universities. They commit substantial time and resources to the development of each project, but they also devote their spirits. They investigate. They obsess. Their work can be seen as a series of dialogues: with the subject matter, with the art-form, with the audience, and with ourselves. It is a search to understand and transcend. The projects they choose have substance and ideas that are important to the way we as people see and experience ourselves, and our place in the universe.
They believe that at the core of the theatrical event is a unique and particular interaction between audience and performance. With each project, they re-examine and re-shape this relationship, creating a different spatial and metaphorical relationship between the audience and the stage. This investigation is central to their practice. Their designs often shape not only the stage, but also the theatre itself.
2b audiences can expect unique and insightful interactions with stories woven from the fabric of our daily lives. The themes in their work range from economics to neuroscience to death and the immortal soul, all in the service of exploring life, and what it means to be.
Read more at: http://www.2btheatre.com
New York Times,Critic's Pick
“Old Stock: A Refugee Love Story is that rarity, a show that defies genre yet sweeps you up in emotional storytelling.” - BlogCritics.org
“[Ben Caplan] is a deliciously boisterous leader in a top hat and plum-colored velvet, with a physical persona like Tom Waits and a shrewd, bombastic artistic voice.” - Theatermania
“A remarkable experience that could only be accomplished with true theatrical collaboration” - Theatre Reviews Limited