The Holocaust of World War II is a horror that will haunt the world forever. Sadly, the recent killing of Jewish people at an American synagogue resurrects the spectre of the genocide that occurred.
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In Anne Frank and Me, the latest production from The Players Theatre, teenager Nicole Burns (Tully Gelfling) and her sister Little-Bit (Olivia Nichols) are led to believe the Holocaust did not happen and Anne Frank’s diary is fabricated, despite protestations from some of her peers.
Written by Cherie Bennet and Jeff Gottesfeld, the story opens in modern times with teenagers dealing with social media, dance, first loves and schoolwork. Nicole and her friends are rehearsing for a dance sequence (choreographed by Kate Ford), which, when we see it, is very well done, with considerable symbolism of what lies at the heart of the story.
We get to know how the characters’ lives interact and discover more about why Nicole denies the Holocaust occurred. When, after a moment of teenage angst, she runs into the street and is hit by a car, she awakens to find herself in Nazi-occupied France in 1942.
Nicole believes she is dreaming when her school principal John Urkin (Guenter Bieniasch) appears as her father Jean Bernhardt and her teacher Renee Zooms (Kate Hunter) is now her mother Renee Bernhardt. One by one her school friends arrive, each with alternate identities, including Jack Polin (Tristram de Jong), the object of her unreciprocated crush in 2018, who as Jacques Poulin in 1942, is her boyfriend – this leads to a very funny moment. As time passes, Nicole becomes entrenched in Parisian life and the very real threat hanging over her Jewish family.
The young actors in this production handle the difficult challenge of playing dual roles quite well. The costumes evoke both time periods, and the set is cleverly simple, moving from the modern day to the austerity of the attic in which Nicole and her family hide, and to the train car which transports them to their fate at the hands of the Nazis.
Radio transmissions from the BBC, sirens and haunting voice-overs played as the action takes place on a silent stage are chilling and ultimately moving. The author admits to some licence, but for the most part, the story is historically accurate. Although the accents are a little mixed, show is thought provoking, dramatic and ultimately comes to satisfying conclusion for the characters and the audience.
Other cast members: Charlotte Schrader, Rebecca Lakis-Smith, Claire McIntosh, Michael Walsh, Jordan Frith, Wendy Beck, Daniel Parlevliet and Amelia Davis.
See Anne Frank and Me at Players on Fridays and Saturdays at 8pm and Sunday at 2pm, until November 11. Tickets are $20-$35. Directed by Guenter Bieniasch.
