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11/01/2008Spanish musical based on Anne Frank Diary

Spanish musical based on Anne Frank Diary Musical soon to be premiered in Spain - A song to life - stirs debate on treatment of Holocaust.

"It is a very entertaining musical, with intimate moments and a lot of comedy," is how director Daniel Garcia Chavez describes a new Spanish musical called The Diary of Anne Frank - a Song to Life.

The musical may be enjoyable, but is it an appropriate way to deal with the tragic subject of the Holocaust?

The upcoming premiere of the musical on Anne Frank has sparked a debate on what kinds of limits should govern the artistic treatment of a subject which is bound to be taken up by artists for decades to come.

Anne Frank's relatives are strongly against turning her life into "entertainment," says Buddy Elias, Anne's cousin and president of the Basel-based Anne Frank Fonds.

The Fonds has the copyright to the famous diary the young Jewish girl wrote in her family's hiding place in Nazi-occupied Amsterdam between 1942 and 1944.

The Anne Frank Foundation, which runs a museum in the house where Anne's family lived in hiding, has a more positive view of the musical, which will have its premiere at Madrid's HaagenDazs-Calderon theatre on 28 February.

"The musical makes you want to weep rather than laugh," says Jan Erik Dubbelman of the foundation, which has cooperated with the theatre group to make sure the historical facts are correct.

A natural literary talent, Anne Frank depicted her daily life, family relationships, hopes and even philosophical questions in the diary which was given to her on her 13th birthday.

After the deaths of Anne, her mother and sister in the Bergen- Belsen concentration camp, the diary became one of the most widely read books in the world.

"I don't like Anne Frank being treated as entertainment," Elias told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa in a telephone interview.

The Fonds has previously given the go-ahead to a movie and a play about Anne Frank, but they allowed for more realistic depictions of her life than a musical, he explained.

"The Fonds cannot, however, prevent the musical as long as it does not directly quote text from Anne Frank's diary," Elias said.

The musical is being billed as the first on Anne Frank worldwide, but Elias says a musical has already been staged on her life in Japan.

The Spanish-language musical will increase knowledge about Anne Frank and the Holocaust and spread her message of tolerance in the Spanish-speaking world, Dubbelman argues.

"Interest in Anne Frank has already increased" on the Anne Frank Foundation's websites, he told dpa.

"It is a privilege to represent someone so brave, full of life and talent," says 13-year-old Cuban Isabella Castillo, who was selected from among 800 candidates for the role of Anne.

Anne's diary Kitty is her alter ago in the musical which also does not lack humour. "The Franks and their friends told jokes in their hideout," said Alberto Vazquez, who plays Anne's father, the only one in the group to survive the Holocaust.

There is, however, an ongoing debate on whether entertaining depictions of the Holocaust, such as Roberto Benigni's 1997 comedy Life is Beautiful, will help to perpetrate the memory of the horror, or water it down by making it banal.

A Spanish magazine even published fashion shots of Castillo, whose life is being compared to that of Holocaust victim Anne because she fled Cuba with her mother and lived in hiding in Belize before settling in Miami, Florida.

"The musical does not have a cheap or commercial approach," Dubbelman counters, admitting that setting limits to the artistic treatment of Anne Frank's story is a delicate task.

January 2008

[Copyright dpa 2008]


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