The Diary of Anne Frank
Anne Frank died in a concentration camp, but author and playwright, Éric-Emmanuel Schmitt, brings her back to life at the theatre from 13 January. Performed for the first time in Paris in 2012, The Diary of Anne Frank now returns to the stage in Quebec in Lorraine Pintal’s production.
Anne Frank died in a concentration camp, but author and playwright, Éric-Emmanuel Schmitt, brings her back to life at the theatre from 13 January. Performed for the first time in Paris in 2012, The Diary of Anne Frank now returns to the stage in Quebec in Lorraine Pintal’s production.
In an interview for radio last spring for the programme, Plus on est de fous plus on lit! ("The crazier one is, the more one reads!"), Éric-Emmanuel Schmitt says that he wrote the play because it was time to discuss Anne Frank the writer.
Lorraine Pintal thinks Schmitt has selected some of the finest passages from the young writer’s pen.
"It will be the 70th anniversary of her death in Bergen-Belsen and the 70th anniversary of the end of the Second World War. I felt there was a kind of funnel effect that suddenly meant we should be putting Anne Frank on the stage today."
— Lorraine Pintal, general and artistic director of the TNM and producer of the play, The Diary of Anne Frank
The play
Told from the point of view of Anne’s father, Otto Frank, the story opens in 1945 at the end of the Second World War. His wife and two daughters have died in the Nazi camp, Bergen-Belsen. All he has left is the diary his daughter Anne kept while they were living in hiding, between 1942 and 1944. Anne reveals that she adores her father and hates her mother. She writes about her puberty and confides her secret passions.
The scenes occur on two levels: on one level, we see Otto reading his daughter’s diary in 1945; on another, are his memories and the world Anne inhabited between 1942 and 1944.
The actors
This is Mylène Saint-Sauveur’s debut in a major theatre. At 24, this talented young actor plays the teenage Anne Frank between the ages of 13 and 15.
"It was an amazing gift, like being catapulted into the theatre with the wonderful TNM team. And I found the part terribly touching," explains Mylène Saint-Sauveur, who prepared for the role by researching the historical character.?
Paul Doucet had no hesitation in accepting the part of Otto Frank.
"He seems perfect, but of course, he’s seen through the eyes and words of his daughter who adored her father. I found myself wondering, "Was this man really as perfect as all that?" I did my research and came up with all these documents and documentaries about him by people who talked about him, and he really does seem to have been a good and pretty upright man."
Actors Paul Doucet and Mylène Saint-Sauveur in a scene from The Diary of Anne Frank.
A play that is still relevant in 2015.
The story of Anne Frank is still relevant, according to Paul Doucet, especially in the wake of the terrorist attacks in France.
"The message Anne Frank gives us is a message about the absurdity of racism and intolerance."
— Paul Doucet
The Diary of Anne Frank will run at the TNM from 13 January to 7 February and will go on tour in Quebec from 25 February.