The story Anne Frank never lived to write

The last entry in Anne Frank’s iconic diary, written while she and her family were in hiding in Amsterdam, is dated August 1, 1944. Three days later the Franks are arrested by the Gestapo, Anne is transported to the camps, and she is dead at the age of 15.

Had she the chance, would Anne have revised the optimistic and benevolent views of human nature expressed in her diary after enduring the horrors of what was to come? That’s the question explored in Anne Being Frank, a one-woman play written by Ron Elisha and performed by Alexis Fishman - both Australian creatives. 

The whole play is constructed like a fever dream, Fishman tells The Jewish Independent ahead of its upcoming season at the Sydney Opera House. “It’s Anne, sadly dying of typhus fever in Bergen-Belsen, and as that’s happening, she’s hallucinating about what her life might have been like.”

That projection into a future denied her, involves Anne negotiating with a high-profile New York editor about the publication of her diary. “The editor is trying to get her to retain the innocence which she is unwilling to do after what she’s experienced over the last six months in the camps. It’s an incredible idea of Ron’s because it’s what might have happened had she been able to keep writing this,” says Fishman. “The diary may not have looked the same.” 

This production owes its existence to a little pandemic matchmaking by the agency which represents both Fishman and Elisha in Australia. “They really went into overdrive to help their clients and keep them happy, and boy it was a really tough time for artists,” says Fishman.

“We all lost a lot of work that year. [The agency] started to hook up their acting clients with their literary clients, and they organised Zoom play readings and they had all these creative ideas to keep people connected.