"Hana's Suitcase is a shining example of the power to be found in theatre for young audiences. I can think of no better way to introduce children to the horrible story of the Holocaust, as just 90 minutes of theatre takes them by a gentle but firm hand for a journey through a nightmare. Without getting either too preachy or too scary, a production of Emil Sher's play...leaves nothing unsaid about what the Germans did 60 years ago when they spread their Nazi insanity all over Europe. Kids will come away from this show with a haunting thought: Hana Brady was just a girl -- why was she murdered? [Fumiko's] journey and the enlightenment she shares with the children are a carefully crafted plea to understand why what happened to Jews matters to everyone, everywhere...When Hana's short life is snuffed out at the Auschwitz death camp, it's a genuine human being we see being ushered to the gas chamber. Take your kids. Then talk. Are you ready for the questions, and mature enough to answer them?"

"I don't get it," said my 10-year-old guest after Hana's Suitcase. "Why did the Nazis have to kill all those children?" Hana's Suitcase, adapted by Emil Sher from Karen Levine's novel, doesn't answer the "why" or the "how"--sparing us...the grisly details of the Auschwitz gas chamber in which 13-year-old Hana Brady died... A handsomely realized adaptation... My young guest thought Akira was "funny" and she was genuinely moved by Hana's story. For adults, what tugs most on the heartstrings are, perhaps, the black-and-white images of the actual, pre-war, blond, curly-haired Hana--happy in the embrace of her loving family."

"When the play Hana's Suitcase is performed, a wonderful thing happens. A theatre full of restless kids becomes silent within the first few scenes. And the theatre remains silent as the audience watches a group of their peers on stage doing some detective work to solve a mystery."