“The Frank Diary of Anne” is one girl’s thoughts on past loves, family tragedy, and YouTube. It’s kind of a controversial title. The topic of Anne Frank is a very sensitive one and I in no means am mocking either her or the Holocaust. The show itself is not about Anne Frank, but the title helps conjure up immediate archetypes of prejudice and persecution. There are a few parallels within the play (it takes place in an attic, the character’s name is Anne, and she only feels safe being herself in her diary—albeit a YouTube diary) for a purpose.
My goal with the show was to have an audience get to know a character and her point of view, and empathize with her, before being given a piece of information that, had they known at the beginning, might have caused them to see her differently based on their own prejudices. I was interested in exploring the assumptions we make in society (and therefore as an audience) and what kind of experience it would be for audience members to emotionally connect with a story and understand the perspective of a character before having the information coloured by our society’s moral take on a taboo subject.
It’s an opportunity for an audience to move beyond their own preset values and limitations to see the world from a different perspective. I chose a moral taboo outside of the range of mainstream society’s comfort zone to make the point clear, but it very easily could have been any historically (and even recently) “taboo” subject like religion, race or sexuality.
As a playwright and actor I am not making a comparison between Anne Frank and the character in this play, but putting those words together in a title immediately sets up the motifs of persecution, close-mindedness and controversy. I’m also not endorsing the actions of the character but the topic suited the motive of the play. I just want the audience to consider the main point (should we as a society be allowed to determine who you can love) as it challenges a lot of people’s beliefs (ie racism or homophobia). I just want people to challenge themselves and ask questions and try to figure out where we draw the line and how that line has shifted, and why we’re allowed to draw that line at all.
I know that some people may be offended by the title of the play. I’ve posted bits of my character Anne’s YouTube Diary on YouTube (the diary posts are projected on stage throughout the show) and received some negative feedback, but it was all about the title, not the content of the play/videos. I performed the show in Kingston last June and was overwhelmed by the positive response to it. My take on it is: see the play first, THEN be offended. Because you might be, but for a completely different reason than what you would assume. And that would be fine, as long as it makes people think.
For more information on “The Frank Diary of Anne” visit: www.fishbowltheatre.com
YouTube site: www.youtube.com/user/fishbowltheatre
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