February 6, 2016
The SuburbanBy Mike Cohen
February 6, 2016
Read the article
Nine years ago I was at the Segal Centre to see the play The Diary of Anne Frank, a very tragic and true story about a girl who lived in Amsterdam with her family during World War II. She was 15 when she died in the death camps, but the diary she kept has gone on to be read by millions.
When I first heard about The Secret Annex, with a storyline about 25 year old Anne having survived the war, living happily in New York and determined to get her diary published, I wondered what Holocaust survivors would think. I also wanted to see the show, which I did last Saturday night. This is one of the best productions I have seen at the Segal Centre in many years. Not only is the acting first rate and the script brilliantly woven together, but it really makes you think – what if? It is part comedy, part love story (there is a significant love triangle) and absolute drama.
Sara Farb does an excellent job as Anne, a role she played a year ago in Stratford's production of the Diary of Anne Frank. “My grandmother is a Holocaust survivor,” she told me. “To her and any other survivors I have talked to, the fact Anne Frank is still continually being talked about today represents a triumph.”
Farb, a Torontonian, was actually cast in the role while performing at Stratford. “So I had a year to prepare,” she remarked. “I read the diary for the first time in Hebrew elementary school. It was required reading, I believe; we were studying in class. I saw the play when I was quite young in Toronto and I remember being deeply moved by the production. I still clearly remember certain scenes from the show. It was a play I wanted to do my whole life, so getting to do it last year was a huge deal for me.”
Beaconsfield’s Marcel Jeannin, who plays Anne’s love interest Michael Stein, is no stranger to the original play either. He had a small part in the Segal Centre production of The Diary of Anne Frank in 2007. While he foundd the premise of the play interesting, he said it also makes every member of the audience wonder what if certain things had turned out differently in their own lives. “I would be surprised if anyone found this offensive,” he said. “It is a very touching and even humorous story. My dad grew up in France during the occupation. He was a bit of a history buff, so I grew up hearing a lot about this subject.”
Jeannin notes it is interesting to wonder what would have happened had Anne Frank survived. For one thing, he points out, she would not be such a celebrity nor as the play spells out would her diary be in demand at all by any publishers. As Michael Stein, “he is part of the life she never got to have.”
Jeannin, who is outstanding in this role, has performed in various theatres across Canada, and is a past member of both the Stratford Festival and National Arts Centre acting companies. Most recently he has appeared at the Segal Centre in The Graduate, The Seagull, and Othello, and at the Centaur Theatre in God of Carnage. Film and Television credits include Taking Lives, Wicker Park, 300, Snakes and Ladders, and the upcoming miniseries, Insomnia. He is a frequent guest-artist at the National Theatre School of Canada, and a proud member of Playwrights' Workshop Montréal.
The Montreal Holocaust Memorial Centre is supporting this production. Executive Director Alice Herscovitch took part in a talk back last week. “There are a variety of opinions, and of course, most people have not seen or read the play,” Herscovitch shared with me. “In general, the audience was very receptive to the discussion. Some are opposed to any fictional representation of the Holocaust, and feel that this play might sugar coat reality. But one of the questions that we must grapple with in general, when discussing Anne Frank, is the enormous interest generated by the Diary, raising Anne Frank to an iconic level, a kind of pure symbol of good, a story somewhat interpreted as redemptive, without giving a real understanding of the Holocaust.
“One of the strengths of the play, given its ‘what if’ questioning, is that it helps put in perspective the question of survival and the difficulties experienced by survivors, in dealing with a world which did not treat them as heroes, which did not want to hear their stories, in fact the challenges they had in telling those stories, when they were finally able to come to North America. I would argue that many of the millions who have read the Diary do not deal with Anne Frank’s death and how she was murdered-typhus in Bergen Belsen after betrayal, deportation to Westerbork and then Auschwitz - or the horrors of the Holocaust, but stay fixated on this notion of hope rather than fear, hiding, persecution and death. It is up to our society, and particularly educators, to put her story in context. How many people know that 75 percent of Jews in the Netherlands were murdered during the Holocaust, the highest percentage in Western Europe?
Herscovitch reasons that the play is a fictional work, and cannot bring to light Holocaust history as if it were a documentary. “It does help the audience understand some of the challenges of survival and the losses people faced,” she says. “As another means of exploring the Holocaust through a human story, it may interest audiences in knowing more. Schindlers List, other Hollywood films such as Defiance, are also somewhat fictionalized. However, according to research, people who become interested about the Holocaust through film or other means of popular culture are more likely to be interested and to want to learn more. That would be the hope with this play, though a fictionalized account. What is important, particularly for educators, is that they provide historical context, factual information and human stories to their students when using fictional works.”
The Holocaust Centre developed an important tool for educators a few years ago called: Draw Me the Story of ... the Jews in the Netherlands during the Holocaust, which can easily be used to accompany this play or reading of The Diary.
In the play, faced with rejection and with love and family life beckoning, Anne is forced to question the meaning of her new life. Why did she survive, if not to share stories? Is the greatest art of all the art of living well?
Farb rightly so calls this a very bold and gutsy play. “It begs the question of what it would be like if we didn’t have Anne’s diary in our world?” she asks. “The enormity of that question is, to me, the most haunting one that the play presents. This is a hypothetical story that many people would probably feel uncomfortable entertaining, let alone seeing through to a full-length play.”
I must say that not only is the play done in extremely good taste, but when it concludes you truly appreciate the message that was sent.
Hats off to author Alix Sobler, director Marcia Kash and the rest of the creative team.
Kash has told Anne Frank’s story on stage three times, including at the Segal in 2007. “Here is a play that brings Anne Frank to life in a new way,” says Kash, “a grown up Anne, Anne the survivor, Anne the woman in pursuit of her dreams living a life with other members of those troubled times in the attic. Whilst it is a fantasy, it raises many questions about the value of a life and the cost of survival. It is a delicate, hopeful, human piece, one that inspires and helps us believe that there is meaning and purpose to every life.”
Artistic and Executive Director Lisa Rubin adds: “The Secret Annex explores a wishful ‘what-if’ scenario through an historical icon who means so much to so many. When I first saw the play at the Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre, I was incredibly moved by how Alix Sobler captured the beautiful spirit of Anne Frank, this time through the voice of a survivor. I loved the idea of this fantasy and how it inspired me to re-read her diary. While it is magical to see her come to life as a young woman, we are reminded to never forget and find a new way to pay homage to this heartbreaking tragedy.”
Other cast members are Brett Donahue as Anne’s close friend Peter Van Pels Anne Cassar as her sister and Judith Baribeau as the publisher who simply does not think the diary is something people will read.
Presentations continue until February 21 on Mondays (7 p.m.), Tuesdays to Saturdays (8 p.m.), Sundays (7 p.m.) and matinees Wednesday, February 10 and 17 (1 p.m.) and Sunday, February 14 and 21 (2 p.m.) at the Segal ( 5170 chemin de la CôteSte-Catherine). For all of the details go to www.segalcentre.org.