THEATER REVIEWS: The drama, adapted from the book, still has the power to raise chills and move one to tears. The latest revival is at Circle Playerhouse in Piscataway.
By: Stuart Duncan
PISCATAWAY When the stage version of The Diary of Anne Frank opened on Broadway in 1955, the producers invited Otto Frank, Anne’s father and the only survivor of the family. He had been instrumental in bringing his daughter’s writing to the world, first by lending copies to a few remaining friends and later by having the work published in the Netherlands (1947) and five years later in English.
But a trip to America to see the story on a stage would be too painful. He wrote each of the New York cast, explaining why he would not be with them at the opening and gave them his gratitude. His little Anne always had hoped her writing would be important and fantasized about being an actress in Hollywood.
It was a touching letter and one went to a young actress named Gloria Jones, who was playing the role of Miep, the Dutch girl who risked her own freedom to bring supplies and the outside news to the eight hiding in the attic of the now famous house in Amsterdam. Ms. Jones has saved the letter; she no longer acts, lives in Princeton and has a long and happy marriage.
The drama, by Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett, still has the power to raise chills and move one to tears. The latest revival, stunningly directed by Joy Christopher More, is at the Circle Playerhouse in Piscataway, now celebrating its 42nd season. Ms. More has used the intimate theater-in-the-round spaces to intensify the feeling of terror which gnawed at each of the eight in hiding, to make even the small disagreements into painful arguments. A strong company responds beautifully.
Al Contursi is a gentle Otto Frank, very much the peacemaker. You tend to forget that he is a full generation too young for the role. Lisa Sudfield is exactly right as his wife, showing flashes of her own will and especially effective when she silently suffers from Anne’s dismissals.
Marina and Larry Aleshire pair nicely as Mr. and Mrs. Van Daan he selfish and moody; she outgoing and protective. Lisa Pickett-White has little to do as Margot, Anne’s older sister, probably because Anne never wrote much about her in her diary. Pat Carpenter gives depth to the character of Dr. Dussel, the dentist who joins the families in hiding.
But the best part of this revival belongs to Daryl Michelle Eisenberg as Anne and Tristan Alexander More as Peter van Daan. Ms. Eisenberg is a budding star and already has an impressive theater biography to show. Her instincts are exciting to watch the flirtatious glances she gives her father; the smirks of disapproval saved for her mother; the hesitant pauses when she speaks to Peter. Technically she is already fully trained diction so perfect you miss not a word. Mr. More (yes, the son of the director) finds all of Peter’s hesitation, all of his shyness and all of his loneliness as befits a 16-year-old boy, caught in the embarrassing throes of manhood.
In the last year of her brief life, Anne confided to her diary, "I want to be useful or give pleasure to the people around me yet who don’t really know me. I want to go on living, even after my death!"
She has.
The Diary of Anne Frank plays at Circle Playhouse, 416 Victoria Ave., Piscataway, through March 24. Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m., Sunday matinees on March 11 and 18. Admission (unreserved) is $12. For further information, call (732) 968-7555.
For directions to the Circle Playhouse, click here.