A phoenix rises from The Book of Ashes

Bombs explode. Flashes of light scorch eyeballs. An unprotected city sits in the middle of an enemy invasion.

War is not a topic normally chosen for children’s festivals. However, early reports of the world premiere of The Book of Ashes suggest it will deliver a tale of courage and heroism that tugs at the heart.

Slated to run May 31 to June 4 at the International Children’s Festival of the Arts, the 55-minute production looks at a fearless community that fought to save a public library in the face of destruction.

Canadian playwright Emil Sher, nominee for a 2015 Governor General’s Literary Award for Children’s Literature, tells the story of a young boy and the special relationship he shares with an Iraqi librarian.

Alia Muhammad Baker, the chief librarian of the Central Library of Basra, grows worried as the drumbeats of war grow louder. Her love of literature and respect for knowledge knows no boundaries.

Determined to preserve irreplaceable records of her country’s culture and history she spirits away 30,000 books, almost three quarters of the library’s collection to a safe place before troops storm the city.

Director Tracy Carroll first read about Baker’s efforts in a New York Times article in 2003 and was fascinated. As war with the United States and the United Kingdom loomed, Iraqi government officials denied her requests to have the books moved to safety.

Defying government authority, she smuggled books out of the library eventually enlisting the help of locals to stash them in safe places. After the war, the library was rebuilt and opened in 2004 and Baker was reinstated as chief librarian.

“The more I looked into it, the more I thought about it, the more I wanted to do it,” said Carroll.

“This woman is pretty courageous and determined to protect what is important to her. It’s amazing she did this incredible thing against all odds. And to bring a community together to help was quite a feat.”

Carroll met Sher at the Citadel Theatre when the company produced his play Hana’s Suitcase. Impressed with the work, Carroll commissioned Sher to write the play.

Although there was a zero budget, and he jokes that the initial draft was “pro bono,” Sher was sufficiently intrigued to create a play. That was eight years ago.

“It is so timely in so many ways and so long overdue. The cost of war goes beyond the loss of human life. Right now we see ISIS destroying a country’s heritage and ultimately we all pay a collective price,” said Sher.

Initially he wrote two narratives – that of a boy’s relationship with a librarian and that of an American pilot who bombs the library. But the pilot’s thread was dropped.

“We had to ask, ‘What is the story we want to tell?’ With the pilot we were casting the net too wide and we risked diluting the story,” Sher said. “It was important for us to tell the story that the wages of war include destroying our sense of identity.”

In the play, the boy Amir feels a loss of innocence as war comes closer. The librarian introduces him to a magical ancient book that when opened comes alive with puppetry.

“This play raises important questions about literature’s part in life and when literature dies, history dies. When you destroy a library, you destroy not one world, but countless worlds.

Both Carroll and Sher feel a debt of gratitude to the Northern Alberta Children’s Festival, not only for premiering The Book of Ashes, but because the festival hosted two staged readings in 2014 and 2015.

“Come with an open mind. Come prepared to hear a story that in most cases you will not have heard of. And don’t expect easy answers. Theatre shouldn’t provide easy answers. But I am hoping it will provoke food for thought.”