Translator: Feike Laffeber Reviewer: Denise RQ
Welcome to our theater.
This theater came together with--
actually, the real reason being education.
Otto Frank started a foundation
when he found the transcripts of his daughter,
and his goal was to educate a new generation about the Holocaust,
through the book.
And the first thing he did, that made the book so famous,
[was to produce] a play on Broadway, he got the book to be a play.
And now, 55 years later,
that same foundation asked us to create a new version of the play,
based on the original text from Anne, Anne Frank.
It was not only a great honor but also a huge responsibility,
because, it's - of course - a really, really difficult subject matter.
When we were asked to do this,
the condition was: you can only do it in Amsterdam,
where the story originated.
But then what?
How do you find a new audience, a young audience,
to come to a theatrical experience, that is in the [inaudible]?
And that's why we built this theater,
because my company, called Imagination,
has a mission statement to do these kinds of subject matters,
and build a new relationship, or challenge the relationship
between the audience and performers.
So when you think of Anne as a play,
you think of small rooms, a small production.
That's not what this is.
It's actually a huge production,
and you see a little bit of an example behind me.
Because what we did with the creative team,
was recreate, as much as we could,
Anne's living environment, on a 1:1 scale.
So behind me is the Merwedeplein, which is where she grew up.
Actually, this whole thing comes down, because she lived on the third floor,
but if we would open up the third floor, you couldn't look in.
So we had to lower the whole third floor,
and this opens up, and you're in her living environment.
This is where she lived until they went into hiding.
So they took their bikes,
and they went to the little factory where Otto Frank [worked].
So these behind me are huge sets
that are as closely-- on a 1:1 scale,
a replica of her living environment,
and I'd like to show you a little video
of what that looks like during the performance.
(Video) (Dutch): "I hope I will be able to confide everything to you."
[Anne Frank, 12 June 1942]
["History made visible beautifully." - Het Parool]
(English) ["Anne Frank's story lives again in Amsterdam" The Times]
(Dutch) Otto Frank: Happy birthday!
["A stage classic in the making." - Die Zeit]
["Monumental version" - Le Monde]
(German speech playing in the background)
["Overwhelming and virtuous" - Het Algemeen Dagblad]
(Spanish) ["Anne Frank 'revived' in Amsterdam" - El Pais]
(Actors shouting and arguing)
(English) ["The illusion of being there as a witness" Jerusalem Post]
(Dutch) ["A grandiose approach, yet intimate" Trouw]
(English) ["A new portrayal of Anne Frank" New York Times]
Anne Frank: Margot.
(Dutch) ["Visual spectacle... Bravo" - De Telegraaf]
(English) ["Anne Frank keeps memory alive for new generation" BBC.com]
Robin de Levita: So you can see, it's not a small production, it's huge.
And that's important, and I want to explain that.
Because we really want to involve a new generation.
We started a foundation that does exactly that.
It enables kids, schoolkids, to come here in groups,
and when they do, we learn something amazing.
The theater is an ideal platform for people to be educated,
because when teenagers come here,
their cellphones go off, the lights go off,
and they're alone,
with this amazing story coming alive right in front of their eyes.
And it has a huge impact on them,
not only the history that they think they know or have heard about
but also they're watching somebody of their age,
dealing with the same problems that they're dealing with.
And it's amazing how they react.
One of the things that really, really strikes us, when we talk to them,
is they immediately pick up the relevance of this story
towards what's going on around them today.
So we love this. We love the fact that we can involve this new generation.
I know today it's really all about education,
and I want to tell you that I truly believe
that the theater, the live theater, is an ideal way to communicate
the important historical, cultural messages to a new audience.
Anything that you can do to help us find that audience, I would love,
because we love this play,
and I'm really proud and happy that you're here with us, in our theater.
Thank you very much.
(Applause)