About the Show

A new work exploring the life of Anne Frank's father.

Obie Award-winning collaborators Roger Guenveur Smith and Marc Anthony Thompson have created new work inspired by Otto Frank, the father of diarist Anne Frank. Smith's intimate meditation, scored live by Thompson, brings to light our modern era through a relentless interrogation of our not-so-distant past. Smith's Frank addresses his daughter beyond her time and his own, navigating his loss as the sole survivor of his immediate family, and negotiating his subsequent service to the living and the dead as the steward of her work.

Critic Reviews (3)

“I sometimes felt in ‘Otto Frank’ that the names of the camps and the litanies of loss were being dragooned into dramatic service illegitimately. ”
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“ ‘Otto Frank ’ gives one plenty to think about and, just as obviously, it left me feeling decidedly ambivalent. Even in this unsatisfying production, however, it is likely to stick in your head for days after you've seen it.”
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welcome timing [to have] an old Jewish man, embodiment of the ravages of antisemitism, interpreted by an African American actor and writer…I found so many of the disparate verses in “Otto Frank” admirable – evidence of a politically-informed imagination and a lyrical sensibility – that I wish “Otto Frank” had worked better for me as a whole. It wasn’t the indirection or the ricocheting that tripped me up. It was the delivery.
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