The Diary of Anne Frank, presented by Central Academy of Drama from Beijing, brought alive human sensitivity and psychological strength. By UK Banerjee
The Diary Of A Young Girl (also known as The Diary of Anne Frank) is a book of the writings from the Dutch language diary kept by the 13-year-old Anne Frank while she was in hiding in a secret annex in her father’s loft in the upper storey (behind a hidden door) in the outskirts of Amsterdam. She was there from June 14, 1942 to August 1, 1944, that is, over two years with her family during the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands: to escape Semitic persecution. She was apprehended — or, more correctly, betrayed — in 1944 and ultimately died of typhus in a concentration camp in Germany.
Before the Dutch police and German Gestapo ransacked their hiding place after its discovery, the diary was retrieved by their Dutch neighbour Miep Gies, who gave it to Anne’s father, Otto Frank, the only known survivor of the family from the concentration camps. The diary is now an international best-seller: published in more than 60 different languages, dramatised in a Pulitzer-award play and made into a film with its protagonist winning an Oscar for best actress. The Anne Frank House in Amsterdam attracts countless global tourists today: saluting the brave, budding teenage-litterateur whom fate snuffed out so early and so tragically.
The Diary of Anne Frank, presented by Central Academy of Drama form Beijing, China, at NSD’s Bharat Rang Mahotsav — using the dramatisation by Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett — the young director JI Pei of the Academy utilised her fourth-year students to bring alive a classic documentation of the World War II, where the “midnight knock” was a regular phenomenon; Jews were meant to be exterminated as “vermin of earth”; and brutal persecution was meant to break the back of all human forbearance. Yet in this stifling atmosphere, tender moments grew. People did dream of happier days, open blue skies and verdure green outside: with their exhilarating wind of freedom!
Given that it is awfully difficult to present a very restricted space for living and surviving in the closest proximity from each other — day in and day out — the Chinese team did a commendable job. There was a cascading white screen draped down on front-stage that created a sense of claustrophobia, serving the dual purpose of projecting the horror of the menacing war going on in the outer world. In this cramped-up existence — from hours lingering on to years — sheer survival was the essence: any approaching sound of military boots below the attic freezing the inmates immediately!
Yet men, women and children managed to live on: with food-supply dwindling; tempers frayed and soothed; midnight-hunger making one furtively scavenge the fridge; and even a stolen kiss planted by the shy Peter on the ebullient Anne’s lips sending the latter into sheer ecstasy to distribute kisses all around! Yet the important Jewish festival Hanukkah was observed: with Anne gathering “gifts” for one and all, if only to keep up the cheer!
In a pre-printed note, the director observes, “In The Diary of Anne Frank, not only we need to indulge in the most sensitive part of human nature and to create a strong and distinctive landscape of psychological existence, but also need to stage a life with artistic means and to reveal what this play is trying to express. Anne Frank is no longer about a character; it is a symbol of a goal which we aim at the finishing-line of our expression”.