Letters for a Young Girl, a new play by Philip Odango, is wholly compelling, utterly frustrating, totally fascinating, completely bizarre, and absolutely heartbreaking.

Kay Williams as The Young Girl/Anne Frank.

It is also likely your only chance to see a promising young African American actress in the role of Anne Frank. Intrigued?  You should be.

The overriding conceit of writer-director Odango’s production is to connect the present-day tragedies in Darfur to that of the Holocaust experience of the famed adolescent diarist. Accordingly, the play opens with a scene in Darfur, in which a young girl (played by Kay Williams) is rescued from certain death by a wounded humanitarian aid worker (Starza Kolman). Left alone when the aid worker goes to find help, the girl finds a copy of The Diary of a Young Girl in the worker’s knapsack.  To pass the time she begins to read the diary, and is drawn into the world of Frank’s story. She begins to imagine herself as Anne Frank.

This could be the basis for a really startling theater piece. But the concept lacks focus, and becomes corrosive: damaging what is, in reality, a great new production of The Diary of Anne Frank.  There was already a successful stage adaptation by Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett in 1955. Odango’s version plays similarly to the older one, at least as I dimly recall it.  Letters says nothing substantive about the conflict in Darfur; merely that it, like the Holocaust, is genocide. It contents itself to use the modern-day tragedy to bookend the familiar story of Frank, and seven others, who lived in hiding for two years in an attempt to survive the Holocaust.

The most amazing thing about Frank and company, though, was their ability not only to survive, but also to live, for so lengthy a time in silent terror of being discovered. Aside from the fact that both are living in times of genocide there is little else that Frank and the young girl have in common. Frank’s diary is not really about the Holocaust: it is the story of an adolescent girl coming of age in extraordinary circumstances. The fact that she and most of the others were killed in the concentration camps is only a sad postscript to the story; not the story itself.

(clockwise from top) Vincent DeSanto, Jeannette Rainey, Kay Williams, Aliki Marie Pantas as the Frank family.

Because we only deal with the young girl in the opening and closing scenes of the play, it is difficult to care about her. She doesn’t even have a name. We know nothing about her, other than the fact that she lives in Darfur and is reading Anne Frank’s diary. The final scene becomes problematic as it creates an awkward double climax: the effective one of the Anne Frank story, in which the Nazis discover their hiding place, and the less interesting one in Darfur. It ends the evening on a strange note, and damages what has come before it.

The Anne Frank scenes, though, are excellently adapted; containing fine dialogue, compelling dramatic scenes, and exceptionally warm and thoughtful moments. The cast works hard, and well, managing to play the difficult story without wallowing in pathos. They perform their roles with humanity and conviction. The image of people on the verge of homicide over a crust of bread is heartbreaking; and it is for this reason that The Diary of Anne Frank has already worked so well on stage and film.

Celia Burnett gives a fine performance as the loudmouth Petronella Van Daan, and Vincent DeSanto stands out as the even keeled Otto Frank. Tom Jankowski is another standout as Albert Dussel, the unexpected eighth person in hiding, although Odango has under-dramatized the character. In real life (as in the older play), he was the source of much conflict for the residents of the Secret Annex. The brightest part of the production, however, is Jeannette Rainey as Edith Frank, Anne’s world weary mother. Rainey gives a tremendously emotional performance, and her recollection of a childhood memory is one of the most moving moments of the evening. Throughout the play she, more than anyone else, is asked to play a wide range of emotion, and she achieves this with a breezy, natural grace.

Jeannette Rainey as Edith Frank.

The architecturally interesting set, not credited to a single designer, well-captures the refugee life of many in Darfur.  Unfortunately, we spend much of the evening with Frank and her compatriots in an attic in Amsterdam, and this only further muddies the production’s lofty conceptual ambition: especially when, at intermission, the young girl/Anne Frank character loses her African costume and becomes a full-fledged member of the Jewish story. Some of the staging is very effective; though sometimes it, too, is muddy. Even the actors, at times, go through the motions appearing vaguely bewildered by what they are doing. At one point they drop everything for a strange dance with the furniture which proves to be one of the evening’s biggest head scratchers.

Owing to its lack of clarity, Letters for a Young Girl falls far short of its intention; but does provide compelling, suspenseful, and cathartic theater. It is not very often that new works are presented on local stages, and the talented Odango deserves tremendous credit for having the gumption to write, produce, and direct the production. Perhaps if Odango had developed the piece in staged readings or workshops prior to mounting a full-fledged production, he might have been able to clarify the show’s purpose. Or, if he had perhaps brought in another director to stage his script, someone who could view it more objectively; it might have been cleaner, and more focused. The idea that he started with is workable, however; but, as it stands right now, Letters for a Young Girl is a lovely, well-performed, excessively abstract, and wildly misconceived new version of The Diary of Anne Frank. It is sure to be admired, and misunderstood by any who see it; but it is a unique theatrical experience that no one should miss.

Letters for a Young Girl is currently playing at Generic Theater Down Under Chrysler Hall through February 7. Tickets are $15.  For reservations call 441-2160, or visit the Generic Theater website (www.generictheater.org).