Jake’s Gift by Julia Mackey in Victoria October 6th 2016. An interview.
I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve seen Julia Mackey’s multiple-award-winning show Jake’s Gift since it first appeared at the Victoria Fringe in 2007. I’ve bawled every time (my dad was a veteran of WW II). Now in her 10th year performing the show Mackey returns to Victoria at the new Teechamitsa Theatre at Royal Bay High School, and was kind enough to answer some interview questions.
… a Canadian play about a World War II veteran’s reluctant return to Normandy, France, for the 60th Anniversary of the D-Day landings. While revisiting the shores of Juno beach, Jake encounters Isabelle, a precocious 10-year-old from the local village. Isabelle’s inquisitive nature and charm challenge the old soldier to confront some long-ignored ghosts – most notably the war-time death of his eldest brother, Chester, a once promising young musician. At its heart, Jake’s Gift is about the legacy of remembrance and makes personal the story behind one soldier’s grave.
Julia Mackey as Isabelle. Photo: Tim Matheson
On your website, it states that you travelled to Normandy France for the 60th anniversary of D-Day. What led you there? Did you go with an idea for the show already in mind?
In 2002, Dirk (Van Stralen—director and stage manager) and I did a workshop at Pacific Theatre in Vancouver. It was in that character development workshop that I started to write a story about this guy Jake and his two WW II veteran brothers from the Prairies. When the workshop was done we did a mish mash production with the characters we’d all developed (6 of us), but I still felt like I wasn’t done with Jake’s story. About a year after that, in the Fall of 2003, I was watching The National one night and Peter Mansbridge was talking about the 60th Anniversary of D-Day ceremonies that were going to take place in Normandy. I instantly felt like I was supposed to go and so I called Veteran’s Affairs the next day and got my name on a list of Civilian visitors, booked my ticket and spent a week over there interviewing as many veterans as I could.
I did go with the idea and hope that I would be able to flush out the story I had already started to write for Jake. Initially in the writing I had done from the workshop, Jake wasn’t a veteran, but his brothers were. At the time I didn’t make Jake a veteran because I didn’t know that voice and felt like I couldn’t write from that perspective. Dirk said, “You know, as soon as you get to Normandy and start hearing veterans’ stories and experiences, Jake will become a veteran.” And sure enough, Dirk was right.
Over the ten years of performing Jake’s Gift, is there one moment, one performance that stands out for you?
There have been a few special ones.
- June 6 2009 – The 65th Anniversary of D-Day. We opened at the National War Museum in Ottawa for the Magnetic North Festival, and there were over 25 WW2 Veterans in attendance. It was a very special day.
- June 11 2014 – We went back to Normandy for the 70th Anniversary of D-Day. I had just learned the play in French a month earlier, and as luck would have it, we found a venue right on Juno Beach to perform two shows on June 11th. The Venue was right next to the Queen’s Own Rifles house, which is the house I make Isabelle’s home in the play. The family that own the home were at the show as were many locals who remembered the Canadians liberating their community when they were just young children. It was a very moving experience, and in the evening show, it was high tide and the transom windows of the venue were open so we got this unexpected additional sound cue of the waves crashing up on Juno Beach throughout the show. It was magical.
Julia Mackey as Jake. Photo: Tim Matheson
How do you keep it fresh? Has your understanding of the material (and your performance) shifted over time?
I think because we usually only perform the show in the spring and fall I have yet to get to the point where I’m bored or don’t enjoy telling the story. So maybe that helps to keep it fresh, but also it is such an important story to me that I just feel lucky that we keep getting to share it with people. The words are exactly the same as they were in 2007, give or take a few lines, and I have definitely learned more about each of the characters over the past 10 years. Sometimes when I’m running through the show I think, “Wow, I’ve never thought of that line that way before or delivered that line that way.” Each of the characters have developed over time in both their own individual stories and in their physical attributes. Their “quirks and quarks” have developed more, and I feel like I take more time for them to hear and respond to one another than I did in the first year of performing.
You’ve received many accolades and awards for this work. What drives you to continue?
A true love for performing and for the story I’m telling, and for the characters – who now feel like real people to me. I also feel a deep importance in keeping that generation’s story alive. I promised many of my 90 year old boyfriends/girlfriends that I’d continue to tell their story as long as I could.
What did it feel like to go back for the 70th anniversary of D-Day?
It was a beautiful experience. Aside from getting the chance to perform there, which was a dream come true, it was amazing to finally get to show Dirk all the places I had experienced in 2004. The people were once again so inviting and kind. The gratitude still felt in Normandy to our Canadian veterans was ever present. I was amazed at how many Canadian Student groups had travelled over for the anniversary. There were about 3000 I believe, and that was amazing to see so many young Canadians lining up and thank the Veterans. It was a very moving thing to watch.
At one point after the ceremony, the veterans were invited down to the beach with their families, as they made their way down they were cheered on by hundreds of Canadian students and local French citizens. The biggest difference I noticed was in the number of returning veterans. At the 60th in 2004, I believe there were close to 1000 veterans who made the trip back. In 2014 the total # of Canadian WW2 veterans who returned was about 100. It was a sobering realization that their generation is living us so quickly now.
Many people feel a deep personal connection to Jake’s Gift—can you comment on this?
It is such a moving and satisfying feeling as an artist when people feel connected to the story that you are telling. Dirk and I are always so moved when people take the time to tell us about the “Jake” in their lives, whether that is after the show in the lobby or by email a few days or weeks after coming to see the show. I think that is perhaps why people feel that personal connection. They see their own dad/uncle/grandfather in Jake, and it somehow makes it more personal when they connect the story back to their own family. 1 million Canadians volunteered in some capacity during the 2nd World War. The legacy of that is massive. Almost every family in this country could find a connection to the first or 2nd world war.
Are you able to pinpoint where your interest in Remembrance Day came from (you state on your website that it’s lifelong)?
I know the exact moment. I was in Grade 7, and I was watching a documentary on WW II with my dad. I got extremely emotional seeing images of dead soldiers in fields and the holocaust for the first time. I was crying so much that my dad wanted to turn it off, but I said, “No. I need to watch this.” It was that documentary that made me truly understood what Remembrance Day was all about, and I think I wrote my first poem not too long after that. It was that documentary that planted the seed to want to write something as a thank you to our veterans.
What is your hope for Jake’s Gift?
My hope is that Dirk and I can continue to share this story with people for as long as we are able. I hope that it will be a story that stays with people, and that they’ll pass it onto their children and their children’s children so that all the Jake stories out there and all the sacrifices made by our veterans are never forgotten.
Who will the show appeal to, and what would you say to entice someone to come?
We’ve always been amazed at the range of age at our shows. We have young kids and old kids alike. We recommend the show for Ages 10 to 110, and it’s always wonderful when families come out as a group to share in the story. It’s a great way to start talking to your kids about your own family’s Jake and what his/her story might be. Dirk likes to say, “It’s short enough that you’ll still have time to see a movie afterwards!”.
I think the Universal themes of the play; Friendship, Forgiveness, Loss and Love speak to everyone, even for those without a direct connection to the War, and it’s–in one reviewer’s quote –“surprisingly funny!”
Jake’s Gift by Julia Mackey
October 6, 2016 7:30pm
Teechamitsa Theatre at Royal Bay High School
3500 Ryder Hesjedal Way, Colwood
Tickets: $22 for adults/$20 for students & seniors
available at Royal Bay Bakery, 3337 Metchosin Road, the Royal Bay Secondary Box Office and online at:
https://
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