Anne visits the Opera House

When Alexis Fishman first stepped onto a New York stage in Anne Being Frank, Ron Elisha’s daring one-woman play reimagining Anne Frank’s life, she knew it was only the beginning of a much larger journey. Now, after a sold-out Off-Broadway run, a mini-tour of Florida, and critical acclaim, the production will finally have its Australian premiere at the Sydney Opera House.

For Fishman, returning the play to her hometown is deeply personal. “The goal for me was always to bring it home to Sydney,” she told The AJN. “I knew this was a show our community ought to see, I was so proud of it. I wanted to bring it home to my hometown, my community, my network.”

Fishman explained that they had been looking for an appropriate theatre to stage the production when The Opera House said they have an opening. The team jumped at the chance.

Elisha echoes Fishman’s excitement.

“Having a play on at the Sydney Opera House fulfils something of a lifetime ambition for me. It’s a setting of global fame that brings with it the level of gravitas one would wish for in a play about Anne Frank,” he said. “The creative team has pulled out all the stops this time around to ensure that the production values are what you’d expect in such an august venue.”

Unlike the familiar diary, Anne Being Frank imagines what might have been written had Anne survived. The drama spans three overlapping worlds: the Amsterdam annex where her words first took shape; Bergen-Belsen, where she perished; and a surreal New York publishing house, where an older Anne confronts a fictional editor determined to censor her voice.

Elisha told The AJN in an interview before it’s off-Broadway debut in October 2023, that he was inspired by an essay featured in Smithsonian Magazine by Dara Horn titled Becoming Anne Frank.

“It was a brilliantly written article asking the question: Why is the diary of Anne Frank so popular? She concluded that it was because it lets you (the reader) off the hook, inasmuch as [Anne] says, ‘in spite of everything, I still believe that people are really good at heart’ which is the most frequently quoted line from the diary. So, I’ve tried to re-imagine what she would’ve written if she knew what was about to happen to her and her family,” he said.

Fishman said the play immediately took her breath away, telling The AJN she’s honoured to bring the story to life.

“I feel proud to be able to be performing on stage and taking on such an important story,” she said.

Much of the production’s impact rests on Fishman’s performance, which won Broadway World Awards’ Best Off-Broadway Solo Performance. The New York production, directed by Amanda Brooke-Lerner, won Broadway World Awards’ Best Off-Broadway Production and the play itself was shortlisted for Best Stage Play in this year’s Australian Writers’ Guild Awards (AWGIES).

Critics have consistently praised Fishman’s ability to embody multiple characters, from a teenage Anne to a jaded editor, with nuance and emotional depth.

Fishman recalls how the Off-Broadway run coincided with the October 7 attacks in Israel. Initially worried that audiences would shy away from such heavy material, she was surprised to find the opposite.

“It became very cathartic,” she reflected, explaining that she had friends in the audience just 10 days later. “I remember thinking that I felt terrible because i just thought that a play like this, as dark and challenging as it is, was not something that somebody would want to see three days after October 7. But in actual fact, they found it really cathartic.

Fishman recalled her friends hugging her afterwards saying they wouldn’t have wanted to see anything else. “Something that was lighthearted or purely for entertainment would not have been appropriate at that moment for them,” she explained.

The Sydney season will feature the fully updated production, with new lighting, sound and set design developed during its Florida tour. Elisha hopes the Opera House premiere will serve as a springboard to a broader US and international tour.

For Fishman, she agrees that staging the play at such an iconic venue will help push another US tour. “The play is just so deserving of such a venue,” she said. And for the performer, it’s also a lovely homecoming.

Anne Being Frank is on at The Sydney Opera House from September 13-21. For tickets, visit sydneyoperahouse.com/theatre/anne-being-frank