Theatre Review: The Diary of Anne Frank - Adelaide Repertory Theatre, Saturday 22 April 2017

I went to see this production on the final night of it’s run. I was unsure what to expect as I’ve often found that amateur theatre can be quite uneven; somewhat hit and miss in whether it manages to pull off what it was intending to achieve. Considering the historical importance of this document, a miss could be almost blasphemous.

It’s been quite a few years since I read the book, and mostly what I remembered what that it was very much the diary of a young girl. It was full of complaining about parents and how no one understands and puberty and dealing with all the usual emotional ups and downs that teenagers have to deal with. I remember being somewhat surprised at how normal all of that seemed, despite the uniqueness of Anne’s situation. I was worried, that the theatre version was going to be a couple of hours of emo whining by a young and inexperienced actor. Thankfully there was more to it than that.

Henny Walters played Anne, and I found her acting to be somewhat forced and formulaic. No emotion ever came smoothly or naturally, you could see where each piece of acting started and ended. I’m now sad so I will droop my shoulders and hang my head. Now I’m happy so my voice will raise and project more, my physicality will become more animated. Now I’m delivering a monologue so I’ll turn to the audience and look meaningfully into the distance just over the top of their heads. Every movement and inflection was so obviously calculated and lacked any subtlety.

The show was held together by the performances of Tim Williams, Nicole Rutty and Chris Leech as Mr and Mrs Frank and Mr Dussel respectively. Without their stable performances it would have just been a mess of unskilled overacting. The occasional comic relief from Dussel was welcome.

The other young actors in the cast were disappointing. Genevieve Venning as Margot was wonderful when she was just a presence on stage, but as soon as she delivered a line the illusion shattered. Ronan Banks as Peter was stilted and uncomfortable. Please note, just because you are yelling does not mean you are giving a believable portrayal of anger.

Therese Hornby and Tim Taylor and the Van Daans were mostly forgettable, apart from Taylor’s tendency to overact, especially with physical mannerisms.

The set was the stand out of the night. They made great use of the space to give the cramped feeling of an attic, while still being able to separate out different areas for the action to occur. My only complaint would be that people sitting on the very edge of the audience couldn’t see some of the scenes, and the view was occasionally blocked by a door post.

There was one lighting effect that was especially good, the light coming through the skylight in the attic. Other than that I didn’t really notice the lighting at all, which, to me, is the sign of a job well done.

The sound was a bit ham fisted. I think the effect they were going for was the noise on the street below their window, but I spent more time wondering if that is actually what the sound was or if there was a street fight happening outside the theatre.

Overall it was an enjoyable show, but then I didn’t go in with particularly high expectations. Let’s just say it could have been a lot worse.

2 and a half out of five melodramatically delivered lines.

Have you seen the stage production of The Diary of Anne Frank? What did you think? Let me know in the comments below!