Young Amy held the stage
The Diary of Anne Frank, Devonshire Park Theatre, Eastbourne.
I HAVE never seen The Diary of Anne Frank on stage before but I did visit her house in Amsterdam a year ago and saw the actual annexe where the family lived with four other people for two years before they were betrayed and captured.
I went to the Devonshire Park Theatre with a fresh mind and I thought Touring Consortium Theatre Company’s production was stunning. This is a new adaptation by Wendy Kesselman of the play written by Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett.
This adaptation includes material that had originally been censored by Otto Frank and marks the 60th anniversary of Anne’s diary published in English.
From the moment the play started I got the sense of the claustrophobia they felt at being trapped in the annexe for two years never seeing daylight, unable to use the toilet or wear shoes in the daytime in case they were heard.
Christopher Timothy is very well cast as Otto Frank but it is young Amy Dawson who holds the stage as the young Anne and Robert Galas is good as the shy young Peter van Daan who captures Anne’s heart. Victoria Ross is also well cast as Anne’s serious older sister Margot.
It is a large cast and they are all good in their roles but it is Nikolai Foster’s excellent direction that makes you realise what these two families went through – and they were real people.
Amanda Wilkins
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Weather for Lewes
Monday 20 May 2013
Today
Light rain
Temperature: 12 C to 17 C
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