Her face shows a multitude of expressions in quick succession: Anger at her husband, protective when defending her son, dreamy when remembering the early years of her marriage, and adoration of the full-length fur coat her father gave her long ago.Īs one of the guardian angels helping to feed and clothe the hideaways, Clara Caruthers Reese as Miep shows a genuine, caring demeanor, and Tom Bleecker as the dentist Mr. The cast is relatively strong, but Rachel Michelberg as Mrs. On opening night she sometimes spoke too loudly and seemed overly wound up in the opening scenes, but by play’s end - when Anne was 15 - she is completely, heartbreakingly convincing. Lo has created a breathtaking set.ĭirector Dennis Lickteig wisely selected dark-eyed Roneet Aliza Rahamim for the role of Anne, and, though she is certainly older than 13 (the age Anne was when her family went into hiding in July of 1942), she tries mightily to convince the audience that that is indeed her age.
It must somehow hold (or appear to hold) beds for eight people, shelves, hooks, desks, a large table in the tiny kitchen, desks, windows, stairways, changes of clothes (done mostly onstage in semi-darkness) - and ever so much more detail. To say that it is crammed to the rafters is an understatement. Her diary shows her many sides: At times whimsical, while other times she’s wistful, and frequently is so perceptive that she seems far older than her years.Įven before the play begins, audience members stared admiringly at the astonishingly authentic-looking two-story structure artfully created by Kuo-Hao Lo. Critics agree it makes Anne seem more like the exuberant young teen she was becoming. This is a relatively new (1996) adaptation by Wendy Kesselman of the 1956 Pulitzer- and Tony-winning play that was originally created by Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett from Anne’s writings. After the war, only her father, Otto Frank, survived, and when he returned to that hideout he retrieved Anne’s diary and - after making some parental edits - had it published. They stayed there for more than two years during World War II. It’s based on the personal diary of Jewish teenager Anne Frank, who lived in hiding with her family (and several others) in the cramped top floors of an Amsterdam (Holland) office building. Peninsula theatergoers have two more weekends to take in this thoughtfully directed production presented by Palo Alto Players at Lucie Stern Theater in Palo Alto. Though the painful, true story of Anne Frank is well known and some people remember the award-winning 1959 film, the theatrical version of “The Diary of Anne Frank” is a very different and wondrous experience.
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