Anne, A New Play is, as the title suggests, a fresh take on the Anne Frank story. Adapted from the book by Anne Frank by two Dutch playwrights, Jessica Durlacher and Leon de Winter, the play premiered in Amsterdam in 2014. Now it has found its way to the Museum of Tolerance in a stripped-down version which takes liberties with the original English-language version by Albert Hackett and Francis Goodrich (which won a Pulitzer Prize in 1955). Among the many changes are a major one: the Anne we first meet in a Paris bistro is alive, a vivacious young woman looking back at her experiences in WW II and pitching her diary to a publisher (Timothy P. Brown). During the course of her pitch, the play flashes back to the secret annex in Amsterdam where she, her family and friends tried to survive the Nazi occupation. Anne, A New Play jumps back and forth in time after that, with Anne acting as both narrator and participant, and The Publisher tagging along some of the time. The plot device is distracting in the extreme. Also on the negative side is the size of the Peltz Theater itself; built for lectures and the occasional film showing, its lack of depth makes for a crowded stage, minimal sets, and oft-clumsy direction. On the positive side is the portrayal of Anne by an extraordinary young actress named Ava Lalezarzadeh, who captures Anne’s complex character, by turns romantic, selfish, idealistic, fiery and feisty, with remarkable skill and flair. Even more remarkable is that Ava is in her junior year at UCLA. Remember her name as I’m sure that once she graduates she’ll be lighting up the theater world in an incandescent way. The other actors in Anne, A New Play also turn in admirable performances. Besides Timothy P. Brown, they are Marnina Schon as Anne’s sister Margot; Andrea Gwynnel as her mother; Rob Brownstein as her father; Kevin Matsumoto as Peter van Pels, the young lad she falls in love with; Aylam Orian and Mary Gordon Murray as Peter’s parents; and Tony DeCarlo as Pfeffer, the stuffy loner with whom she must share her room and her precious writing table. A microcosm of the human race, this small group of decent but fallible people living with courage under fire was immortalized in Anne Frank’s diary; thanks to plays like this one her story remains as powerful and relevant as ever.
