New 'Diary of Anne Frank' adaptation gives whole story

In 1942, Hitler continues his rise to power, invading the Netherlands. With that, a family of four heads to a secret annex to wait in hiding for the end for the war — an end they thought was near.

Two years and two months later, the Frank family — still in hiding — is discovered, leaving only a few valuables and the diary of Anne, a precocious 13-year-old girl with a gift for writing.

"The Diary of Anne Frank," required reading in most schools, was turned into a stage play in 1955, winning the Tony Award for Best Play. (As an interesting side note, it was revived on Broadway with a new adaptation starring newly Oscared Natalie Portman as Anne.)

Pioneer Theatre Company is set to open its production, a co-production with Indiana Repertory Theatre. IRT artistic director Janet Allen directed this show, which already had a successful run in Indiana.

"This production attracted the largest audiences that we've had in 15 years," Allen said in a phone interview. "We ran six weeks, played 50 shows and were really amazed that audiences were flocking to re-experience something that the adult population already knows what the end is.

"While we know what happened to them is tragic and wrong, the play has been triumphant to work on," she said. "It's not about how they died, it's about how they lived. Audiences will be surprised at how much they laugh."

"The adaptation we're doing is fairly recent; Wendy Kessselman adapted it in 1996."

When Anne's father, Otto, the annex's only survivor, passed away, "he left provisions in his will that allowed a bunch of pieces previously edited from the diary to be published. The whole diary was published in the '80s."

Wendy Kessselman's 1996 adaptation includes a number of items not in the original movie or play. "Those things have to do with three strains of thought," Allen said. "It's written very clearly how much Anne hates her mother. In loving memory to his wife, Otto left that out of the first rendition.

"Second, Anne's relationship and discussion about sexuality," she said. "Remember, she was this imaginative, precocious teenager — and she's bored.

"Lastly, Anne's relationship to religion. Wendy was able to add more liturgy to this adaptation.

"I think where we do Anne and other survivors a disservice is we start to treat them like saints — we forget they're human. Anne Frank was not a saint — she was a kid who had no idea what was going to happen when she wrote a diary."