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LIGHTNING REVIEW: Carlacci brings 'Anne Frank' to life

Danielle Carlacci stars in 'The Diary of Anne Frank,' which plays through Sept. 25 at the Flat Rock Playhouse. [PHOTO BY SCOTT TREADWAY/Treadshots]

By Bill Moss, Published: September 9, 2016

At the beginning of The Diary of Anne Frank, Otto Frank announces to family members the rules of their self-imposed prison.

From 8 in the morning until 6 at night no talking, no shoes, no flushing the toilet, no noise of any kind. “You can’t go outside of course,” he adds. “You can’t even look out the window. … One mistake could cost all of us our lives.”
It all seems like an unbearable choice, and it is, except for every other option that a Jewish family in Nazi-controlled Europe had in 1943. As time goes on, a terrific cast brings to life the hardship and tension of eight people on a precarious platform of co-existence, deprived of every normal human experience — being alone, getting fresh air, eating when hungry, holding a conversation, laughing — while quaking at every siren, shout and footfall.
A number of newcomers, including the marvelous Danielle Carlacci, as Anne Frank, and Jonas Cohen, as the compassionate and practical Otto Frank, join Playhouse veterans to move the story through the interactions of the two families forced into the upstairs floor of an office building for a year and a half, waiting for liberation that never comes.
Although we know how the story ends, and how it unfolds before it ends, the action on stage moves apace under the direction of Angie Flynn McIver.
It’s a tribute to Miss Carlacci that we can detect signs of life in dire and inhumane conditions. A 2014 graduate of Columbia University, Carlacci manages to play Anne with indomitable spirit and even occasional humor. In her playbill notes, McIver reveals Carlacci’s wise understanding of the hero’s importance.
“This play is not about Anne’s death,” the actress said early during rehearsal. “It is about how she danced, and read books, and fought with her mother and thought about boys. This play is about her life.”
Dennis Maulden’s set serves the story well: a sofa, six beds on three levels, a dining table, five straight-back chairs, a bookcase, a radio. The Frank family and the Van Daan family, and later Mr. Dussel, a dentist, have only one another and their depressing surroundings.
As the brittle Edith Frank, Anne’s mother, Raissa Dorff channels the anxiety that each of them feel. As Anne’s sister Margot, Sarah Stevens, in her Playhouse debut, effectively portrays a quiet but supportive figure. John Dewey, as Peter, Anne’s love interest, lets his character slowly bloom under Anne's irresistible light.
Carlacci’s Anne is a narrow but perceptible ray of sunlight in a world bathed in evil and darkness. Her spirit moves the entire imprisoned household, for good or ill. She can be an annoying 13-year-old one minute and a mature young woman the next. Forced by circumstances to imagine her whole life in the span of a few months, Anne makes us painfully aware of the enormous collateral damage that the mad Hitler and his twisted mindset had caused.
Midway through the second act, it’s March 29, 1944. Spring is in the air. The captors desperately await word of the liberation. Anne’s sister Margot dresses her for “a date” with Peter, their brief time together in the attic of the hiding place. Against all odds and everything we know, Carlacci makes us, just for a moment, dare to hope. But of course hope goes unrewarded in this story. The liberation comes too late for the Franks and the Van Daans and Mr. Dussell.
It’s startling if expected to see the Dutch collaborator and a Nazi soldier (played by Hendersonville High School student body president James Dillion) force the Jews out of their hiding place at gunpoint. McIver has made good use of the house for entrances and exits. The Jews descend five steps, to certain death.
After a blackout, the cast is assembled on stage for the most solemn curtain call you’ll ever see. Theater amuses. Theater entertains. Theater illuminates. In The Diary of Anne Frank, theater reminds.

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The Diary of Anne Frank plays through Sept. 25 at the Flat Rock Playhouse. Tickets are $15-40 and can be purchased by calling the box office at 828-693-0731 or visiting www.flatrockplayhouse.org.