In the late 1970s, Allan Merovitz heard about James Keegstra, an Alberta high school teacher who denied the Holocaust in the classroom.

Allan Merovitz performs his one-man musical If Cows Could Fly at the Ashkenaz Festival on Aug. 31 and Sept. 1.    [Artword Theatre photo]

Merovitz’s first reaction was anger; his next was to write a play.

“I think from that moment, I was pretty determined to try and do something. My background was in theatre,” he said. “I had an idea that I would merge my personal history and family history. This would be my little contribution to Canadian theatre.”

Around 1978, Merovitz, whose family left Kishinev, Moldova, in 1903 to settle in Canada, started interviewing family members.

“I basically travelled to Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal and Smith Falls, Ont. The outcome was a shoebox full of cassette tapes. From that I pieced together this show,” he said.

The show was originally titled Zaide Didn’t Want To Be a Soldier, but later turned into If Cows Could Fly, based on a dream that his dairy farmer cousin had.    

The one-man musical follows Merovitz’s family from Poland, Lithuania and Kishinev to western Europe and Smith Falls.

Armed with little more than a background screen, Merovitz flits from character to character, portraying everyone from his zaide, who escaped conscription from the Russian army, to his Uncle Hy, a war hero and demolition expert.

For Ron Weihs, the director of If Cows Could Fly, dealing with so many different characters in a one-man show was a challenge.

“Every time that a character comes in, that character has to be there,” he said. “It doesn’t seem like a one-man show because [Allan’s] such a good storyteller. He makes all these different people come alive.”

In 1999, Merovitz approached Weihs, the co-founder of Artword Theatre, for help developing the script. With Weihs and his Artword Theatre co-founder Judith Sandiford, who is also the designer for Merovitz’s play, If Cows Could Fly was the first production to run at the Artword Theatre’s location in Hamilton, Ont., in 2000.   

While Merovitz’s play was a response to ignorance about the Holocaust, it is by no means a Holocaust play.

“There’s hardly any mention of the Holocaust. I did that intentionally. I didn’t want to draw up the bogeyman. Yet it’s there, in the music and the stories. These are Jews, not Greeks,” he said.

Merovitz believes that his play reflects many Canadian values.

“I think it’s an especially important Canadian kind of statement. We’re multicultural. I just see it right now as a very universal kind of Canadian [play.] The show just happens to focus on the plight of Jews,” he said. “The reality is that all of us are immigrants here.”

Apart from his play, Merovitz also sings with various klezmer bands, including Chutzpah, Hou Tsa Tsa and his own band, the KlezMerovitz.

If Cows Could Fly is steeped in Yiddish culture and klezmer music.

“I grew up speaking Yiddish. I knew quite a few older Yiddish folk songs. My great-grandmother had sung to me in Yiddish. I incorporated some of those older folk songs into the show,” he said.

Merovitz is joined on stage with a klezmer band made up of Henri Oppenheim on accordion, Frank Rackow on clarinet and Weihs on fiddle.

It was with Weihs’ encouragement that Merovitz turned the play into a musical.

“The songs are so good and they tell the story so well. The songs represent different ways of looking at Jewish culture,” Weihs said.

Merovitz agreed.

“Klezmer music is a wonderful sound scape for the different scenes and emotions and the internal psychological psyche that is working through the play,” Merovitz said.  

While the show’s time frame includes two world wars, Merovitz was careful to keep it light.

“I know it’s very much a family show, it’s not a heavy show for kids. We do not focus on the oppression, we focus on the journey and how people adapt and move and adjust to new situations,” he said. “Darkness is never a direct statement.”

Merovitz will be taking his play to the Ashkenaz Festival this year.

“I would hope that [the audience] would come away with some history. They’ll hear some beautiful klezmer and Yiddish music, and some tunes perhaps they’ve never heard before and some stories that I know will tickle their fancy,” he said.

If Cows Could Fly is on at the Studio Theatre on Aug. 31 and Sept. 1. Tickets are $15 in advance, $18 day of. Contact the Harbourfront Centre box office at 416-973-4000 or online at www.harbourfrontcentre.com. For more information, visit www.ifcowscouldfly.com.