Confined within the walls of the Warsaw Ghetto, Dr. Janusz Korczak struggles to protect the children at his orphanage from the horrors of the Second World War. There is not enough food or pairs of eyes to keep watch over them. Between a troublemaking thief, an abandoned girl, a malnourished boy, and a violin prodigy, Janusz has his hands full, but together they fight for beauty and hope in a world crumbling around them.

Based on the WWII advocacy work of Dr. Janusz Korczak, The Children’s Republic is a reminder of the hope that can still be found in a world devoid of freedom and the necessities of life.

Hannah Moscovitch is an acclaimed playwright, librettist and TV writer. Her work for the stage includes East of Berlin, This Is War, Little One, The Russian Play, Infinity and What a Young Wife Ought to Know. Her plays have been widely produced across Canada, as well as in the United States, Britain, the Netherlands, Greece, Austria, Australia and Japan. Hannah’s music-theatre hybrid, Old Stock: A Refugee Love Story (co-created with Christian Barry and Ben Caplan) has toured internationally, garnering a New York Times Critics’ Pick and over fifty four- and five-star reviews. Hannah’s operas with Lembit Beecher, Sky on Swings and I have no stories to tell you, have been produced at Gotham Chamber Opera / the Metropolitan Museum of Art and Opera Philadelphia. She has been honoured with numerous accolades, including multiple Dora Mavor Moore Awards, Toronto Theatre Critics Awards, Fringe First and Herald Angels Awards, the Trillium Book Award, the Nova Scotia Masterworks Arts Award and the prestigious Windham-Campbell Prize. She has also been nominated for a Drama Desk Award, the international Susan Smith Blackburn Prize and twice for the Siminovitch Prize. Recently, Hannah debuted her first confessional work for the stage, Secret Life of a Mother (co-created with Maev Beaty, Ann-Marie Kerr and Marinda De Beer) at the Theatre Centre in Toronto. Hannah is a playwright-in-residence at Tarragon Theatre in Toronto and lives in Halifax.

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“Moscovitch’s truthful and nuanced dialogue tells the story of The Children’s Republic with great dexterity and heart, creating characters so palpably real it’s all you can do to not leap out of your chair and try to save them.”

Kelly Bedard, My Entertainment World

“Hannah Moscovitch has found a fresh window into one of the most extensively documented horrors of the Second World War.”

J. Kelly Nestruck, The Globe and Mail