The Diary of Anne Frank: A Play

In the early morning darkness, Anne, Margot, and their parents Edith and Otto Frank, enter the Annex. Wet with rain, the Franks embrace for a moment and then start to remove their multiple layers of clothes. Each item of clothing bears the yellow star that marks them as Jewish in Nazi-occupied Amsterdam. Edith and Margot lie down and rest, staring, but Anne is excited as she helps her father to unpack. Anne reads from her diary in a voiceover, explaining that it’s July 6, 1942, and her father had only begun to talk about the family going into hiding a few days before. She is 13 and has been living under Nazi oppression since Hitler invaded right before her 11th birthday. Jewish people were tightly restricted with an enforced curfew, and Mr. Frank had been forced to give up his business. Their bikes were taken, and they were forced to wear yellow stars on all their clothing. The day before, Margot received an order to “report for work detail” (9), which meant being sent to a camp. Although they hadn’t planned to go into hiding for 10 more days, they left their home. Anne had to leave her cat behind.