Prolific Australian playwright Ron Elisha, is not as well as know as our more celebrated writers such as David Williamson and Joanna Murray-Smith, still he is a prolific and award winning playwright (four Australian Writers’ Guild Awards). I have seen a number of his plays over the years. They have often had intriguing, controversial premises and been thought provoking experiences. My kind of theatre. Following in this tradition is his play ANNE BEING FRANK (2023) which had a very successful run off Broadway last year, is having a season at the Sydney Opera House.
ANNE BEING FRANK features an intriguing what if scenario. What if Anne Frank had not died in the Bergen Belsen concentration camp, and survived the war? What if she became a sophisticated young woman living in New York, and still maintained her writing ambitions? She finds a leading publisher who wants to publish her updated diary.
There is a deep conflict though, the publisher wants Anne’s diary to maintain the optimistic tone of her original diary where she famously wrote, “in spite of everything, I still believe that people are really good at heart,” Anne however has been through the horrors of a concentration camp and is now a sophisticated young woman, perhaps in her mid twenties? She doesn’t feel the same optimistic way. A tug of war develops between Anne and the publisher, simply known as Bow Tie. The playwright’s portrayal of the publishing industry wanting to mould and shape stories so that they are more saleable is incisive.
Elisha makes his story in to powerful theatre. This is a one woman show with the brilliant Alexis Fishman playing all the characters. We see her constantly move between three distinct worlds brilliantly designed by Jacob Battista; the secret annex in Amsterdam, where Anne (and her family) were in hiding in the early 1940’s, the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, and a stylish New York publishing office some time in the future.
Amanda Brooke Lerner’s direction is just what the play needs. As per her director’s program note, ‘Anne is in near constant motion, moving in and out of the three worlds as if swept up in the world of her own typhus-fuelled imagination.;’
Alexis Fishman gives a brilliant performance authentically portraying each of the different characters. Outside of playing Anne, her portrayals of Bow Tie man and Pimple, a horrid SS officer who takes a liking to her, are particularly effective.
Finnigan Comte-Harvey’s lighting design was brilliant, adding a great deal to the atmosphere of the play.
Simon Mason’s soundscape was subtly effective which was great. Like many, I am not a fan of soundscapes that are more foreground than background.
Susan Makkoo’s period costumes and John Reed’s choreography worked well.
Here is a work that is both script and production strong. Elisha’s play is well structured and the coda is well realised and aching. Amanda Brooke Learner’s production is well realised and Alexis Fishman’s performance outstanding.
Recommended, A Monstrous Theatre, Neil Gooding Productions and Shalom Collective presentation, Ron Elisha’s ANNE BEING FRANK : THE STORY SHE NEVER LIVED TO WRITE is playing the Playhouse at the Sydney Opera House until 21 September 2025. Running time 90 minutes straight through.
Production photography by Grant Leslie.
