Anne Frank Meets Chekhov in Fringe Festival's Days and Nights

By Adam Hetrick
July 17, 2007

Anne Frank will meet Anton Chekhov when the New York International Fringe Festival presents Days and Nights: page 121, lines 11 and 12 Aug. 10–24.

"The characters inside the attic where Anne Frank, her family and four others hid from the Nazis don't actually perform The Seagull," according to press notes, "but as the events of Chekhov's play and the Frank family's circumstances unfold simultaneously, the similarities of both well-known stories become evident and striking: the feelings of longing, of being trapped, and the complicated and stormy relationship between child and mother, friends and lovers."

The title of Days and Nights: page 121, lines 11 and 12 refers to a book written by Trigorin in The Seagull, which the lovestruck Nina quotes back to him: "If ever you should need my life, come and take it."

The production is adapted and directed by Marc Stuart Weitz, who directed Broken Hands at the Fringe Festival last year.

The cast features Philippe Bowgen, Erin Gorski, Catherine Gowl, Carrie Heitman, Charlie Hensley, Raymond James Hill, Jessica Ray and David Douglas Smith.

Set design is by Alexis Distler, lighting design by Seth Reiser, sound design by Daryl Bornstein and costume design by Elizabeth B. Carlin.

Days and Nights: page 121, lines 11 and 12 will play the Lafayette Street Theatre (45 Bleecker Street, at Lafayette Street) as part of the 11th annual New York International Fringe Festival.

For tickets call (212) 279-4488 or visit www.annefrankseagull.com or www.fringenyc.org.