Russlander story comes to Fringe Festival

The story of the Russlanders has been told in Mennonite circles and towns for a 100 years. It’s the story of a people who left oppression in Ukraine to find a better life in Canada. Now, for the first time, the story of the Russlanders is being told at the Winnipeg Fringe Festival.

“My grandma and grandpa settled in Grunthal and they worked so very hard to make a great life for their children and my mom did the same. She raised five really successful kids and the play is her coming to terms with the trauma of the immigration,” said writer and director Monica Reis.

Wherever You May Be centers around Hildie as she recounts to her children when at the age of six her family joined the last migration of the Ukrainian Mennonites to Canada. Known as Russlanders, between 1923 and 1930 more than 24,000 Mennonites fled the Soviet Union having survived years of war, violence, hardship, and trauma.

“The Mennonites who lived in the Ukraine were forced off their land and sent to a displaced person’s camp in Germany until they were eventually accepted into Canada or Paraguay,” said Reis. “Long story short, my mom’s family was one of two in the displaced persons camp that was accepted into Canada and the rest went to Paraguay…We were lucky to make it to Canada.”

Reis wrote the play during the Winnipeg Mennonite Theatre’s national writing competition in 2022 to celebrate the Russlander migration. The play had been in Reis’ head for years as bits and pieces as she heard stories from her mother and developed more during the writing of the family history book.

“It is a funny play, but there is some poignant parts to it where she finally tells the story of how it felt as a six-year-old to be displaced along with her four-year-old brother and baby sister and her parents. Basically, it kind of talks about family and hope and love…I think it resonates with a lot of things that are happening in the world today.”

Reis said what is currently happening in Ukraine with the Russian invasion of the country where the past is repeated in a “cycle all over again.”

“Refugees – my mom was a refugee – there’s a lot of weight to that word. I think we throw it around rather lightly at times. These are people who cannot live in the country that they’re living in and it’s not in their control and I don’t think Canadians, especially…a lot of people my age are second, third generation, and they don’t have any idea what it means to leave a place not on your own accord or are desperate.”

Wherever You May Be was performed at Mennofest 2.0 in 2023 and at the Mennonite Heritage Village that same year during the 100-year anniversary train trip across Canada by the descendants of the Russlanders, who made a stop in Steinbach.

“I want people to see the hope (in the play) and see the how people who immigrate from a country, they make such contributions to their community, but they do so because they know how great a place that they live in (is). I want people to leave with a sense of knowledge about what people go through, but also a sense of joy.”

Wherever You May Be will play at the Théatre Cercle Moliere between July 17 and July 27.