Venue: Sydney Opera House (Sydney NSW), Sep 13 – 21, 2025
Playwright: Ron Elisha
Director: Amanda Brooke Lerner
Cast: Alexis Fishman
Images by Grant Leslie
Theatre review
Anne Frank’s story did not end with her famous diary. For months after the final entry, she endured the harrowing journey through camps in the Netherlands, Poland, and Germany. Ron Elisha’s play Anne Being Frank reimagines those lost chapters while daring to add a fictional path in which Anne survives the war, is discovered by a publisher, and returns to her memoirs with the voice of a survivor.
To call the piece thoughtful is an understatement. At a time when wars are escalating across the globe, Anne Being Frank urges us to confront the senseless loss of human life, across nations, faiths, and identities. Under Amanda Brooke Lerner’s direction, the work compels an empathetic response to profound questions, even if certain moments of the staging fall can feel somewhat dry or staid.
The production is rendered with care. Set, costumes, lighting, and sound are all handled with sensitivity, offering a degree of theatricality without breaking new ground. At its centre, Alexis Fishman delivers a commanding performance as Anne. Her intimacy with the material is unmistakable, and she is at her most affecting when the narrative reaches its deepest poignancy.
It may feel trite to denounce the evils of war, yet it is a truth that demands endless repetition. Again and again humanity plunges into conflict, deaf to the countless stories etched across history that plead with us to turn away. Most bitter of all is the sight of those once crushed beneath its weight rising, in time, to be amongst its fiercest perpetrators. Such is the cruel cycle we seem powerless to break.
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