The Diary of Anne Frank

On the occasion of the 75th anniversary of Anne Frank’s birth, Marshall Arts presents the Toronto premiere of Wendy Kesselman’s adaptation of the Pulitzer Prize-winning play The Diary of Anne Frank, by Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett. Alexander Galant directs.

Wendy Kesselman’s powerful version contains new material from the second, uncut edition of the famous journal. She weaves previously omitted material into this moving drama about the lives of eight Jews hiding from the Nazis in a concealed storage attic. Kesselman has restored more of the grim historical reality that was omitted in the original play and adds material that relates to Anne’s adolescent sexual frankness and her frustration at her confinement and with her mother that was originally deleted by Anne’s father, Otto, when he allowed the original diary to be published more than 50 years ago. Despite the increasing horror surrounding those two dark years in the attic, Anne’s courageous spirit shines through, making this extremely moving human drama as vital today as when it was first written. This is a new adaptation for a new generation.