Young Critics

Forget all of what you’ve seen before. Erase Schindler’s List from your mind and expunge all memories of The Pianist from your head. The production of The Diary of Anne Frank from the Delaware Theatre Company is in many ways unlike any holocaust drama ever seen before. It defies expectations but is that a good thing?

The story begins with two affluent Jewish families and a dentist who convene to go into hiding in the secret annex of Mr. Otto Frank’s office building. The modest space houses eight Jews struggling to maintain their identities, heritage, and tempers long enough to make it through W.W.II to one day emerge and resume their lives and freedom.The main character, Anne Frank, superbly played by Sara Kapner, epitomizes a typical blossoming adolescent. Trapped within the annex for more than a year, the characters are forced to develop. The play follows Anne through her aguish, sorrow, and sometimes joy experienced in the annex. Anne evolves from a garrulous nuisance into an optimistic, romantic, and insight young woman. The evolution is displayed through her monologues detailing life from her eyes; the monologues tone varied from comical to glum. In the beginning, her incessant talking gives one the feeling she is trying to use noise to cover the feelings of fear and dubiousness she might feel. However, as the play progresses she begins to accept her situation and take a more adult way to cope rather than ceaseless chatter.

The first act is filled with anticlimactic, somehow jovial, and extremely familial scenes that briefly deter the characters from their reality. I sat weary, expecting action to occur as expected in stories like these. But was disappointed scene after scene until a thief breaks into the building. In retrospect, this is effective directing. The familial scenes made the audience, including myself, forget for just an instant of the danger the characters faced. This is something that is never attained in most Holocaust stories. However, when the thief arrived, suspense loomed in the theatre. The silence was resonant and coaxed any ill feelings I had of boredom. News of the outside shatters all of the character’s feelings of safety. The characters along with the audience feel the fear of impending danger. Suspense is reached through silent moments where nothing but the character’s fear can be heard. The audience watches silently writhing with the agony of the characters. The first act is slow paced, with ordinary scenes of the characters getting along and adjusting to their environment. But as the time passes, tempers flares, more action ensues. By the second act, more than a year after the Franks and the Van Daans gathered together to go into hiding, even the most humble of characters begin to unravel. In an exciting scene, the once demure Mrs. Frank demands the departure of the Van Daans clearing showing that the experience has somewhat taken a toll on everyone. Finally, by the end of the production it is evident that the second half of the play is more action-packed than the first. But is this a bad thing?

The set is a clutter annex filled with wooden furniture and cotton blanket covered beds. It gave off a sense of the desolation and sorrow felt by the characters. A remarkable point of the play is the music. It’s understated and subtle but powerful. A song resembling Chopin is played recurrently through the first act. Chopin’s work captures dramas in this genre well. When it is played the morose sounds compliment the action and dialogue occurring during the scene by highlighting the sadness. As a former cellist I was utterly moved by the use of Bach’s “Cello Suite No. 1 Prelude” during the second act. It was poignantly used and added to the scene subtly but beautifully. This piece of Bach is rapid paced with crescendos that all climax at one final point during the song. The scene was suited well with the piece since it was used to show time progression and it emphasized the characters emotions building and building and finally hitting a climax of ultimate fear. Music highlighted the sentiments during the scenes and assisted in setting the tone of the play.

One of the more downplayed points in the script is the romance between Peter and Anne. However, the relationship was a significant aspect of the production. The downplay could be accounted by the script since there were little to none written to explore the relationship. Out of a whole two hour production, one scene is dedicated to these two characters talking alone without the presence of their old fashion parents with didactic views of romance or a moralistic, “wet blanket” sibling. Even with the downplay, the two actors, Kapner and Henry Raphael Glovinsky, play the relationship genuinely and ingeniously which ensues a moving scene that occurs in the second act (unsurprisingly) between Peter and Anne in the attic. It is somewhat a date between the two hormonal and teenaged characters. They both discuss their hopes for the future. Hearing this makes that audience realize these hopes will never accomplished. The heartrending scene ends nicely with an impatient Anne kissing Peter.

The performances of the production along the music were one of the best parts of the show. A tearful monologue was brilliantly delivered by Joel Leffert, Mr. Frank at the very end of the production. I could feelthe actor inject pain and pathos into the sullen monologue. The two teenage characters were wonderfully embodied by the two actors, Kapner and Glovinsky. Kapner as Anne highlighted points of characters usually left out of the Anne Frank story. Perhaps also this can be attributed to the directing. Points like Anne’s sexuality and curiosity are usually left out and cast aside to be swept beneath the rug of morality. The star’s performance as a teenager had genuineness. She played the chattiness, the cattiness, and curiosity exactly as it would be in real life. In the first act, Glovinsky, embodies the awkward, fumbling, and confused teenaged boy, Peter Van Daan, unaware of how to act in a female’s presence, perfectly. These three actors bring to light how authentic the performances were played in the show.