A scene from the play "Anne" during its world premiere in Amsterdam on May 8, 2014. (Cnaan Liphshiz)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Imagine Nation pays the Anne Frank Fonds royalties from tickets that cost between $50 and $100. The foundation will use these revenues exclusively for charity and educational purposes, in keeping with Otto Frank’s directive.<\/p>\n
To achieve authenticity, Kugelmann gave the creators of the play full access to countless documents that are the sole possession of the foundation. The foundation, was set up in 1963 by Otto Frank, Anne Frank\u2019s father and the editor of the world-famous compilation of his daughter’s writings, “The Diary of a Young Girl,” first published in 1947.<\/p>\n
Otto Frank had already approved a script by playwrights Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett — an American Jewish couple — for a theatrical production that premiered on Broadway in 1955. But their adaptation was based on his own selection of sources, which left out countless documents, letters and other accounts.<\/p>\n
Based on those more expansive materials, the new play tackles painful subjects, such as Anne\u2019s growing estrangement from her mother and sister during their days in hiding. It also includes a scene in which she gets her first period.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe theater world evolved in ways that facilitate the dramatization of situations which were more difficult to convey in the past,\u201d Kugelmann said. \u201cWe wanted the play to evolve, too, but we wanted to broaden the scope and set the Anne Frank story in its historical Jewish context for educational purposes.\u201d<\/p>\n
The new play’s premiere, which was attended by King Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands, took place on the 69th anniversary of Nazi Germany’s surrender and shortly after the 70th anniversary of the death of Anne Frank and her sister, Margot.<\/p>\n
The new techniques include a giant revolving platform that rotates the\u00a0annex where the Frank family hid, allowing viewers a simultaneous view of all inhabitants. Kugelmann calls this “life-acted performance.”<\/p>\n
The effect is reminiscent of reality television shows like “Big Brother” in which participants share a single building with little privacy.<\/p>\n
And that is no coincidence.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnne Frank\u2019s story was a ‘Big Brother’ show avant la lettre, one where exile meant death,\u201d said Leon de Winter, the Dutch Jewish novelist who co-authored the script for “Anne” with his wife, Jessica Durlacher.<\/p>\n
De Winter said he hoped the “Big Brother” allusion would help younger viewers connect to the play.<\/p>\n
Another technical innovation offers spectators real-time footnotes to the scenes as they are being acted out on stage. The footnotes — photographs of actual pages full of Anne Frank\u2019s handwriting — are projected on side panels while the cast portrays the situation described in the text.<\/p>\n
As the months in hiding progress, the handwriting gradually matures from the hesitant block letters of a child to the flowing cursive style of an author who is gaining confidence as she hones her writing skills.<\/p>\n
Authenticity is further pursued through language. The play itself is in Dutch with a bit of German. Simultaneous translation into six languages is offered to the audience through earpieces.<\/p>\n
De Winter, whose parents survived the Holocaust in hiding, said that one of the predominant emotions he had while writing the script was anger.<\/p>\n
\u201cI worked with my anger, my fury, over what was done to her,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Durlacher, whose own father survived Auschwitz, said that she drew inspiration for the script from letters that Otto Frank had written to relatives after his return from the Nazi death camp.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn the beginning, he didn\u2019t know what had happened, he was only then finding out. And that\u2019s heartbreaking,\u201d she said, referring to Otto Frank. \u201cIt gave me the tools to write to my best ability so that the story of Anne Frank would get re-adapted for generations in a way which better speaks to contemporary viewers, in their language. That\u2019s what we’ve tried to do.\u201d<\/p>\n
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