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By Catherine Billey
Mammoth Times Staff Writer
 submitted photos courtesy of thies The cast of Anne Frank during a celebration of Hannukah in the Amsterdam attic. Everyone knows what happened to Anne Frank and seven other Jews who hid from the Nazis in an Amsterdam attic during World War II until their capture by Dutch collaborators and transport to concentration camps.
So it’s easy to assume that “The Diary of Anne Frank,” the theatrical play newly adapted by Shira Dubrovner for the Mammoth Repertory Theatre, is a downer.
It’s not. The play, which opened Nov. 7, bears witness to the irrepressible spirit of an immensely talented teenager as she blossoms into womanhood and attempts to maintain her hope and normalcy in a terrifying political context. And in the myriad ways it captures how those around Anne cope with impossible circumstances, it pays tribute to the human spirit.
Had she survived the Holocaust, Anne Frank would have celebrated her 80th birthday last June. Instead, she perished at the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp at 15, just weeks before the Allied forces liberated the camp.
Her effervescence has been beautifully captured on stage by Jessica Blum, a first-time actress who bravely took on the title role and animates the production throughout. She is the driving force who keeps hope alive among eight Jews (including her mother, father, and sister Margot) while exploring her emerging womanhood and evolving creative self in the diary.
“Most people seem to think it is a downer; too sad to see,” said Greg Young, who sensitively portrays Anne’s father, Otto Frank, after the Sunday matinee performance on Nov. 8.
“I challenge you to experience it all. This story of two families trying to survive in hiding in a claustrophobic setting has laughter, tenderness, anger, sarcasm and fear. You laugh and smile many times as you watch a typical teenage girl trying to lead a normal life,” he added.
Anne Frank actually wasn’t a typical teenage girl. Historians such as Francine Prose have suggested, based on the words of her carefully constructed diary, that she was a child prodigy.
The diary was discovered and preserved after World War II by Dutch helper Miep Gies (who in real life became a centenarian last February), portrayed with efficient, nuanced warmth by Sabrina Nioche.
The play as written by Wendy Kesselman offers us too little of Gies, who risked her life to hide the Jews in a warehouse facility above Otto Frank’s former business and eventually located and protected the diary until Otto Frank (the only survivor) returned.
An impressive aspect of the performance is how the personality of each distinctive character emerges through facial expression and body language from the moment each actor steps on stage.
We quickly realize that Edith Frank (played by Dee Di Gioia) is the most uptight and frightened of the characters. Margot Frank (Natalie Wolf) is the introverted older sister who seems but a shadow to her gifted younger sibling, but does a terrific job of conveying a gentle soul with few lines at her disposal.
Rick Phelps, who last graced Mammoth’s theater scene in “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof” had at least one opportunity to fulminate again in his role as Mr. Van Daan. The role of his son Peter went to Cameron Ramey, a Mammoth local who played the underwritten part with great diffidence. Bob Struckman and Dennis Kostecki effectively rounded out two minor roles.
But it was Alice Suszynski in a brilliant performance as Mrs. Van Daan who arguably steals the show and provided the most memorable counterpoint to Anne’s dominating, youthful presence. Suszynski somehow balances the pettiness of her character with a touching vulnerability so that we can’t quite dislike her.
The production begins with the sound of birds chirping in an unseen Amsterdam background (symbolizing the freedom the Jews are leaving behind) and the bells of Westerbork (symbolizing the thread of hope that runs through the play).
The stage design by Dubrovner and her long-time collaborator Tim Casey is a good attempt to depict the three-level attic hide-out, although those who have visited the Anne Frank Museum in Amsterdam know how claustrophobic and tiny it was and may wonder where the bookcase that concealed the entrance to their hiding place has gone. The set suggests comfort, but characters and audience both know this is deceptive: siren blasts, bombings, and radio updates provide a sense of ever-present threat and the war raging outside.
But it is the life of the human beings on stage that is the true focal point. They don’t know, as we do, that all but Otto Frank are doomed. And so they find their ways of coping in diminished, hunted circumstances. We who walk away with at least a lump in our throats may find ourselves humbled and grateful.
“The Diary of Anne Frank” runs through Nov. 22. For reservations, call (760) 709-1981.
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