New Play 'Days and Nights' Blends Chekhov & Anne Frank

Anne Frank meets Anton Chekhov in Days and Nights: page 121, lines 11 and 12, a new play that blends dialogue from The Seagull with the characters and circumstances from Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl, receiving its world-premiere Friday, August 10 at the Lafayette Street Theatre (45 Bleecker Street, at Lafayette Street) as part of the 11th annual New York International Fringe Festival, August 10 - 26, 2007.

In "Days and Nights "- which is adapted and directed by Marc Stuart Weitz, director of last year's FringeNYC success Broken Hands - "the audience observes several days and nights in the life of Anne Frank and her family as described in Anne's diary, but the characters only speak lines from Chekhov's masterpiece, The Seagull," as described in press materials.

"The characters inside the attic where Anne Frank, her family and four others hid from the Nazis don't actually perform The Seagull, Mr. Weitz 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 love struck Nina quotes back to him: "If ever you should need my life, come and take it."

The cast features Philippe Bowgen, Erin Gorski, Catherine Gowl, Carrie Heitman (Off-Broadway's Phallacy), Charlie Hensley (former Artistic Director of Virginia Stage Co.), 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 (Mostly Mozart Festival, Metropolitan Opera); costume design by Elizabeth B. Carlin (Broken Hands). Constance Zaytoun is Associate Producer.

The New York International Fringe Festival is a production of the Present Company.  "Days and Nights" is produced by Purple Man Theater Company. 

For tickets ($15) and information, call 212-279-4488 or log on to www.annefrankseagull.com or www.fringenyc.org.  The running time is 80 minutes with no intermission.