The Diary of Anne Frank: Re-Imagining the Truth

The Paper Mill Playhouse is promoting its current line-up as "a season of classics re-imagined." In their opening production of Cinderella, that meant awkwardly combining Rodgers and Hammerstein's score with a revised book that tried to milk laughs out of contemporary urban slang and modern attitudes. Fortunately, their re-imagining of The Diary of Anne Frank stays closer in spirit to its source material; making the more reasonable choices of punching up the Jewishness of the characters a bit and recognizing that an adolescent girl writing a journal would no doubt include entries about her emerging sexuality.

Anne Frank, of course, was a young Jewish girl from Amsterdam whose family was forced into hiding during the Nazi occupation. Two families, the Franks and the van Daans, along with a Jewish dentist forced to be separated from his Christian wife, spent over two years cloistered in the annex of her father's office building (assisted by a gentile couple) never setting foot outside and knowing the slightest sound heard by the wrong person could mean death for all of them.

After the diary she kept during this time was discovered and given to her father Otto, the only family member to survive the war, he published an edited version as The Diary of a Young Girl, which became an international best seller. Adapted for the stage by Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett, after an initial effort by Meyer Levin was deemed "too Jewish" to have broad appeal, The Diary of Anne Frank premiered on Broadway in 1955, winning the Tony Award for Best Play as well as the Pulitzer Prize for Drama.

In 1995 a new edition of the diary was released, about a third longer than the original, containing passages her father had omitted. Wendy Kesselman used this newly-published material to write an adaptation of the original play, which premiered on Broadway in 1997 and is the text used for The Paper Mill's production. The story remains the same but the telling is different. Kesselman highlights observations from the diary which give a distinctively Jewish perspective to Anne's writing. And in a nicely subtle touch, Anne removes the yellow Star of David from her coat and notices the shadow of the patch remains.

Although the story of Anne Frank is known worldwide, those who attend a performance of the Kesselman adaptation without having read the complete diary might be a little surprised by a monologue where she not only writes of a fascination with her developing breasts, but expresses a desire to feel the breasts of Miep Gies, the kind woman who is helping them to hide. It's an eloquent passage and an important aspect of the play, for this is not only a story of the tragedy of human cruelty. The Diary of Anne Frank, especially in this adaptation, is the personal drama of a girl going through all the normal stages of puberty in an environment where there is no private room in which to blossom. It's the story of an exuberant, creative soul who must stay silent in order to survive.

Fortunately, the production's strongest asset is the performance of Shana Dowdeswell in the title role. She slowly glides from hyperactive child to introspective young lady in convincing manner, combining adolescent confusion with a maturity that comes with the necessity to grow up fast. Unfortunately, the muffled recorded narration of her voice reading various passages fails to give the same performance. Her most famous quote, "I still believe, in spite of everything, that people are truly good at heart," can barely be heard over the on-stage action.

Although there is some fine work from the rest of the cast, director Carolyn Cantor fails to provide any kind of lasting tension or mold the cast into an ensemble that works as a blended family unit. There's a stop/start quality to this evening that feels more like a collection of performances. Perhaps she'd have a better chance without David Korins' enormous set, which not only makes the annex look far too roomy, but is pushed upstage so far that even from only ten rows back it's difficult to really connect with the actors.

Still, there are strong moments supplied by Peter Kybart as the protective Otto Frank, Isabel Keating as his wife, trying to make peace with a daughter who rejects her, and Nancy Robinette as the privileged Mrs. van Daan having a difficult time adjusting to a life in hiding. Michael Rupert sticks out a bit as Mr. Dussel, the dentist who must share a room with Anne, coming off a little too upscale Manhattan at times.

But despite the production's flaws, the power of the story and the respectful adaptation by Kesselman (especially with Dowdeswell as the centerpiece) should be enough to give those who have never seen the play a moving experience. At the very least, it's a more truthful one.

Photos by Jerry Dalia: Top: Shana Dowdeswell
Bottom: Isabel Keating and Peter Kybart

 

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