What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank

Author(s): Nathan Englander
Based on the book of the same name by Nathan Englander. Two Jewish couples reunite. One couple is now secular liberal (Debbie and Phil); the other couple is ultra-Orthodox (Shoshana and Yerucham). The couples meet up in Florida at the opulent home of Debbie and Phil. During dinner, disagreements quickly arise about the life choices each has made, while Debbie and Phil's son Trevor, a college dropout, attempts to act as referee. The couples argue about identity, politics, and parenthood. The Holocaust looms large in the conversation. Eventually, the couples play the Anne Frank Game, which Debbie devised in her youth. Each participant must hold a lit candle and ask the question of the others: “The Nazis are coming—will you hide me?”
Format: Dark comedy
Cast Size: 3M/2F
Character breakdown:

PHIL
DEBBIE
SHOSHANA
YERUCHAM
TREVOR

Snapshot

Original or Prominent Production:
October–November 2024 and January–February 2025 at the Marylebone Theatre, London, U.K.
Original Source Material: Based on the Pulitzer-finalist short story What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank by Nathan Englander
Nationality of Author: U.S.
Original Language: English
Publisher:

The book was published by Knopf, New York, 2012. Visit the Penguin Random House website.

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