BUDDING AUTHOR: Anne Frank (Kristin Norris) confides her every thought and dream in “The Diary of Anne Frank.” Photo: DITA MARINA OBERT ‘The Diary of Anne Frank’ When Through April 17. 8 p.m. Thursdays-Saturdays, 2 p.m. Sundays Where The Chance Theater, 5552 E. La Palma Ave., Anaheim How much $20 ($17 seniors/students) Length 2 hours, 25 minutes Suitability Too intense for young children Call (714) 777-3033 Online www.chancetheater.com

'Diary' dictates frank innocence
Review: Chance Theater staging proves that, even 50 years later, Anne Frank's hopeful view still packs a punch.

By ERIC MARCHESE
Special to the Register

It's only through a twist of fate that we have the diary of Anne Frank, which gave us the perspective of a Jewish family in hiding from the Nazis during World War II.

Anne kept her diary hidden in her father's briefcase, away from prying eyes. After the Franks were discovered and captured, the Germans emptied the briefcase onto the floor, hoping to discover valuables. Considering them worthless, they left Anne's writings behind, which saved them for posterity.

It wasn't long before Anne's writings were translated into English and published, as "Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl," then adapted for the stage by Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett. Their play opened in 1955 and won a Pulitzer Prize for its unblinking look at a family fighting staggering odds to survive, and the observations, hopes and dreams of a preteen girl on the verge of becoming a young woman.

The play's raw honesty, and the heart-tugging contrast between Anne's innocence and the stench of the Holocaust, has always made "The Diary of Anne Frank" an obvious choice for theater companies. In Anaheim, the Chance Theater's staging commemorates the play's 50th anniversary by performing Wendy Kesselman's Tony-winning 1997 adaptation, which returned to the definitive original, unexpurgated edition of "The Diary of a Young Girl" as its source.

If you find yourself weeping, and maybe just a little bit ashamed, while watching this staging, you're not alone. Near the play's end, Otto Frank, the only member of the group to survive the death camps, reads a line out of Anne's diary: "In spite of everything that has happened, I still believe people are really good at heart." A bitter Frank later said those words put him to shame.

Backed by an outstanding production team, director Josh Costello has wrought an organic production whose every facet fits the larger mosaic, forming a harsh, wrenching, bittersweet tale. His staging captures Anne's perspective - of evil as viewed by someone who had only ever known goodness - and he understands Anne as a sensitive observer of humanity, one who loved writing enough to consider it as a probable career. More critically, Costello gets at the heart of the indescribable tedium the group experiences, relating the incredible tension generated by eight refugees living in close confinement for two years, in constant fear of discovery.

For those used to seeing Anne portrayed as a naïve youngster subdued by those around her, Kristin Norris is likely to be a shock. Her Anne is bright, bubbly and excited from the get-go, an impetuous sprite with a dazzling smile and an irrepressible joie de vivre. In private, writing in her diary, she confesses that her buoyancy is only an attempt to suppress her terror at being caught. Norris delivers a luminous performance with a definite arc from the playful girl who at first sees going into hiding as an adventure to an honest 13-year-old glowing about her budding sexuality.

As Otto, the father who has always had a special connection with Anne, Richard Comeau is the group's quiet bedrock, a patient, tactful soul with streaks of defiant resolve. At his return to the hiding place, he relates the group's eventual fate witha tone of disgust and undisguised outrage. Melanie Gable depicts Margot, Anne's studious older sister, as a frumpy, subdued version of Anne. She has the same glowing smile as Norris' Anne, yet doesn't flash it as often. As Otto's wife Edith, Annie Mezzacappa expresses the utter hopelessness of the group's situation and her own despair over Anne's coldness toward her.

As the dysfunctional Van Daan family, Karen Webster, Don Walters and Michael Irish offer a more volatile dynamic than the Franks. Webster and Walters' mild squabbling eventually erupts into nasty acrimony, from which Irish, as gentle, introverted son Peter, retreats. Webster is haughty, Walters is choleric and ill-tempered, and Irish is as ultrasensitive as any teen from any era.

Bob Campbell depicts Mr. Dussel, the dentist who joins the group in hiding in late 1942, as a mild-mannered jokester with wellsprings of deep gratitude and deeper anguish.

Set designer Katherine Futterer's raked, angled stage depicts the various levels and corridors of a musty and cramped attic. Erika C. Miller clothes the cast in joyless grays, tans and washed-out greens and blues, while Jon Langrell's lighting design helps form a tight, effective lens for us to view the drama.

Most evocative, though, is Costello and Jeremy Golden's innovative sound design, which frames the story with vivid noises: Wailing voices and horns suggesting ancient Israel, Hitler ranting before throngs, glass shattering, trains roaring and piano music - Chopin etudes that preserve the delicate melancholy pervading this staging.