There have been many stage and screen adaptations of the diary of Anne Frank. As her story is well known, there can be few spoilers in this most recent stage version. History informs us that her family hid with others for over two years in the secret annex behind a large building. That there have been so many versions reflects the lasting appeal of her story, an appeal which this latest production adequately conveys.
This is a well-acted production which alternates the action with excerpts read out from Anne’s diary. The script, the actors, and the pacing of the story all combine to convey the predicament of a German Jewish family hiding in Nazi-occupied Holland during the height of World War II.
Eight otherwise ordinary people are thrown together in a confined space. Their everyday problems are exaggerated by their physically constrained circumstances. While an ever-present menace lingers outside, more ordinary and even, at times, mundane action unfolds within the confined space on stage. Sibling rivalry, intra-familial conflict between husbands and wives, parents and children, and the adjustments as offspring move from childhood to adolescence are all explored.
These interludes of normality, with their occasional hints of comedy, relieve the tension, but only temporarily. All their issues and conflicts are magnified as basic acts such as obtaining food risk their survival. Even being observed from outside their premises poses a danger.
Consequently, the claustrophobic atmosphere never abates. The set is shabby and divided into four rooms representing the secret annex where the characters must survive for an indefinite period. As Jewish citizens within the Third Reich, they are constantly walking on eggshells.
The onstage tension and conflict mirror the enveloping menace offstage. Two black swastikas hang above the set, symbolising the ever-present danger just beyond these confines. Similarly, the Nazi presence is heard through the sound of vehicles, aeroplanes, and eventual shouts and commands, all uttered in German. However, they never actually appear onstage. Constantly lurking in the background, this visual absence stresses the pervasive and ever-present Nazi threat, rendering it even more menacing for being ‘invisible’.
Like many dramatisations, there is a touch of artistic licence as a few facts do not fit with the historical record. Furthermore, anyone who has read the unedited version of this diary will also note a few changes, changes that seem to be concessions to social convention. While this work is a tad ‘sanitised’, this does not detract from the effective dramatisation.
This play reminds us why Anne Frank is so remembered. She was not a public figure, not a politician, or a war hero, but an ordinary individual, someone who had to survive in secret and in dire circumstances like so many others. She was anonymous but for her diary, which has long survived her. As an otherwise ordinary girl, she was exceptional mainly through her ability to record and analyse her circumstances, a literary talent that was never fully realised. As a result, she has become a symbol of the youth and innocence that was destroyed by a brutal regime.
Her recorded words mean her identity, unlike that of millions of other Holocaust victims, was not erased. Her diary gave her a voice and the identity of an individual who struggled to make sense of her tragic circumstances.
Her trials and tribulations, so vividly recorded, are once again given life through the art of drama.
THE DIARY OF ANNE FRANK is on 16 – 26 July at the State Theatre Centre of WA, Heath Ledger Theatre.