Traumatic diary on Harborough stage

The Diary of Anne Frank will be staged by Market Harborough Drama Group from Tuesday to Saturday, November 14 to 18.

The audience will be transported back to July 1942 in Amsterdam when the Nazi regime were systematically rounding up the Jewish population.

Two families, the Franks and the Van Daans, decide to hide in an attic.

The story is based on the lives of these families as seen through the eyes of Anne Frank, who meticulously kept a diary of events.

It shows her thoughts, the pains of a teenager growing up in such an environment, and the quiet heroism of those who risked their own lives on a daily basis to help them.

The family was apprehended in 1944, and Anne Frank died of typhus in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in 1945.

The diary was retrieved by Miep Gies, who gave it to Anne’s father, Otto Frank, the family’s only known survivor, just after the war was over.

The diary has since been published in more than 60 languages.

It was first published in 1947 and the English translation was published in 1952.

The play by Albert Hackett and Frances Goodrich based on the diary won the Pulitzer Prize for 1955, and a subsequent movie earned Shelley Winters an Academy Award for her performance, whereupon Winters donated her Oscar to the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam.

The director of the show is John Foreman whose recent production (two one-act plays) Two Sisters and The Cagebirds won 10 awards at festivals following a successful run at the theatre.

Tickets for the show are likely to be in considerable demand and therefore people are advised to book early to avoid disappointment.

Tickets cost between £9 and £11.

Performances start at 7.45pm each night with a matinee production running at 2.30pm on Saturday, November 18.

They can be booked by visiting www.harboroughtheatre.co.uk where more information is available.