THE DIARY OF ANNE FRANK, Directed by Bob Stegmiller

REVIEW FROM THE NEWARK ADVOCATE
Thursday, July 20. 1972

Maggie Browning's Anne makes 'Diary' spellbinding delight by Larry Kieffer

How would you react to being confined with seven other people, including three young teenagers, to a space no larger than your kitchen and dining room?

If that is not enought to make you shudder, what if you had no idea how long you would remain there, if all eight had to survive on subsistence rations for three and, above all, you had to avoid detection by the people who occupied the rooms just beneath you?

Fantastic though it sounds, those are the actual conditions under which a German family and a Dutch dentist, all Jews, managed for two years to avoid the clutches of the Nazis who occupied Amsterdam during World War II. The bitter irony is that shortly before the end of the war, these courageous people were discovered and shipped off to concentration camps.

Only one, Otto Frank, survived.

After the war, he returned to the warehouse in Amsterdam where, among the items left behid in their hasty exit--they didn't give you much time to pack for concentration camp--he discovered the diary kept ;b;y his younger daughter, Anne.

That is how "The Diary of Anne Frank," which opened last night at Weathervane Playhouse, came to the world. Even if the diary is not authentic, as claimed by a few die-hard Jew-baiters, it is still a very moving, powerful piece of literature.

And playwrights Frances Goodrick and Albert Hackett have been moderately successful in capturing Anne's perceptions of the effects of prolonged terror, hardship and close quarters on eight personalities. They have captured Anne's indomitable spirit.

"Diary" is a tough play. The mechanics of staging alone are exceedingly difficult, but the actors have an even tougher task for they have to play this drama on at least four different levels simultaneously.

Underlying everything must be an intense sense of terror. A feeling that any move might be the one which dooms them to Buchenwald or Ausschwitz, that each breath might be the last.

On top of that there is the interaction of the characters. In such close quarters, the slightest change in one has far-reaching effects on all the others.

Then there is the humor (and there is a lot of it) which is essential not only to understanding the character of Anne but also to keeping the whole drama at the proper pitch.

Finally, there is the unbreakable exuberance of Anne herself. We must see the characters botgh as they really are and as Anne sees them. Her fervent belief that "in spite of everything, people deep down are really good," is the guts of the play.

A very tall order indeed, and Weathervane comes mighty close to filling it.

Stegmiller's staging is effective and sensitive, but what I find somewhat lacking in this production is the permeating sense of urgency and, to a lesser extent, the humour.

Not lacking enough, however, to make this show anything less than an absorbing, spellbinding and thoroughly enjoyable evening.

Maggie Browning is entirely credible as Anne and it is her performance which makes the whole thing work. She is at her best as the coquette and the little imp; making us realize how trying Anne Frank must have been to the others.

Norma McCune and Bill Reid carry the parts of Herr and Frau Frank adequately, though not with all the force inherent in the roles. Miss McCune could stnd to get a lot angrier in one scene where Frau Frank comes out of here shell and expresses her true feelings.

It is a very small role, but David Wurst is magnificent as Kraler, the businessman who hides them and acts as their lifeline. He and Mike Hartman (the dentist) convey much of the urgency and nearly all the feeling of setting and locale. Both are totally European.

Wayne Turney is also outstanding as Peter Van Daam, the shy young boy whom Anne brings out of his shell and with whom she establishes her first and only adult relationship.

The rest of the cast is quite good except for very inconsistent accents.

But more than anything else, it is the overpowering character of Anne Frank and Maggie Browning's sensitive, perceptive portrayal of her that makes "Diary" a delight.