Sitting down last Friday afternoon for an interview with The Diary of Anne Frank cast members Sarah Dodd (Mrs. Van Daan) and Gabe Plener (her son, Peter Van Daan) amidst the din of College Street construction, we prepared to discuss sunny afternoon topics like, you know, the Holocaust.
I was a little concerned in advance of the interview-anxious my questions would seem controversial, considering the sensitive subject of the emotionally charged play the actors have immersed themselves in. Fortunately, both Dodd and Plener were breezy and talkative, and more than ready to get down to the nitty gritty.
To come out swinging, I asked them frankly (pun intended) why people should still care about this story.
“Anne Frank survives not because it’s a play about the Holocaust-in fact, the Holocaust happens afterwards,” said Stratford alumnus Dodd. “Rather, it’s a play about hope, and I think that’s why it survives. With Anne Frank, the job of the actor is that we have to play that we’re hoping, that we are going to get out of there.”
Plener, an award-winning actor who has been on stage and screen since he was only three years old, and who happens to also be a political science and philosophy student at U of T, found his motivation in a similar way. He noted how hard it is to get the audience’s attention away from the tension of the Holocaust, but how necessary it is to see “Anne and Peter trapped in an annex, but still trying to have fun-go on ‘dates’ to the attic, and maintain some measure of normality.”
And although the actors are careful to define their roles apart from the looming spectre of the Holocaust, it was very still much a part of their preparation. In addition to personal decisions to attack the legacy of Anne through her diaries (in various editions), director Alexander Galant also helped them get context from various sources, including a virtual tour of the Anne Frank house, documentary screenings, and guest speakers such as a woman who went to school with Anne and survived the Holocaust as a hidden child within a non-Jewish family.
Understandably, approaching this heavy and still freshly painful material can take its toll on those involved. And though Plener mentioned the intensely personal interest in the subject matter for the director and the emotional context he provided for them, Dodd insisted that “the actor’s instinct is: the heavier the material, the goofier you get offstage.”‘
To be able to deal with the gravity, the cast depends on each other to maintain their sense of humour-a connection visible in the performance.
“You have to have a sense of humour, because if you bombard yourself with all this stuff, you get out there and you can’t play the ending. What we try to do is have fun with each other and then when we go out there it’s back to business.”
But flipping to a serious note, as is want to happen with this production of extremes, she added, “I’d like for kids to see it, because it’s a universal story. There are people in hiding right now… there are things going on in the world right now that people turn a blind eye to.”
“The important thing,” continued Plener, “is to open the dialogue-having parents talking to their kids, and having kids talk to each other.”
Interestingly, despite its omnipresence in the Western psyche (The Diary of Anne Frank is the second most widely read non-fiction book next to the Bible), the play has opened new avenues of discussion between the actors and audience members such as myself. The production (at the Bathurst Street Theatre until November 7) is worth a visit not just for the theatrical experience, but also for the reality check it generates.
