Forthcoming Productions: Souvenir d'Anne Frank
Souvenir d'Anne Frank
アンネのバラ
The story of Anne and her rose
A cross-arts, multi-media performance piece featuring Colin Decio's Piano Trio 'Het Achterhuis' – inspired by Anne Frank and the story of a rose.
Video stills by Richard Aylwin, from the 'Sharing of the work' presentation of Souvenir d'Anne Frank, Farnham Maltings, August 2009
- Composer and pianist: Colin Decio
- Cellist: Clare Graham
- Violinist: Cindy Wu
- Performer, singer and writer: Elizabeth Mansfield
- Performer: Azusa Ono
- Visual artist: Richard Aylwin
- Lighting: Nao Nagai
- Sound: Yoko Nishimura
- Dramaturg: Steve Trafford
Years after the war, Otto Frank, Anne's father, sent a rose 'Souvenir d'Anne Frank' to Japan, where it now blossoms and grows in the gardens of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and every Japanese city, cultivated by children – a symbol of universal love and peace...
In Souvenir d'Anne Frank, the stories of Anne and her rose, of Otto Frank and of Miep Gies (their Dutch helper) are told by a European woman and a Japanese girl. In a magical dreamscape, words, song and moving imagery weave through the seven movements of Decio's haunting piano trio, celebrating the courage of those who stand up against bullying, oppression and racism. And in her own words, the luminosity of Anne Frank's extraordinary imagination, humour and wisdom, reaches out and touches hearts, from the West to the far, far East...
通称 アンネのバラ
Souvenir d'Anne Frank will be performed, alongside an educational workshop programme for young people in schools and other settings, in the local community, developed by Ensemble, and the Anne Frank Trust UK. Practical, one-day workshops will explore, through music, painting and prose, the young people's creative responses to how Anne's world meets their own, and prepare them for seeing a performance.
The Anne Frank Trust UK will also be offering their heritage/exhibition work alongside the project, engaging new audiences for the show, and bringing local people and organisations together.
Additionally, Souvenir d'Anne Frank offers an opportunity for the project's creative team, together with the Anne Frank Trust, to work with young people to explore and contribute to the final development of the theatre piece itself: The creation of the moving images, the relationship of music to spoken text and song, the fusion of European and Japanese theatre traditions.
'Souvenir d'Anne Frank' rose bushes are being sent to us from Japan, grafted from the original roses sent by Otto Frank, Anne's father, to Michiko Otsuki, in 1972. Through planting these rose bushes in communities, we will engage people, young and old alike, with Anne's ideals and aspirations. As in school gardens all over Japan and at the Peace Museums of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the ‘Souvenir d'Anne Frank' roses will be a living, growing reminder of Anne's story, her love of nature and her longing for a tolerant, conflict free world.
We want to inspire everyone who is touched by this project, to reflect and remember the words of the Anne Frank Declaration for the New Millennium...
Her life warns us about the dangers of intolerance...
That wars, now more than ever before, claim the lives of the young...
That we all have a moral and spiritual obligation to keep our world safe for the generations to come...
A word from Buddy Elias: President Anne Frank-Fonds
“I am deeply impressed by Ensemble's Souvenir d'Anne Frank project. It is in my opinion not only an educational production of high value to young people, but an amazingly fascinating theatrical and musical event, that I will never forget. The collaborative painting workshop is another addition to this project, which will surely influence everyone attending it in a most humanistic way in the ideals of my cousin Anne Frank. I wish Souvenir d'Anne Frank all the success it deserves.”
通称 アンネのバラ
- An
- Production
Buddy Elias, President of the Anne Frank Fonds, and Anne Frank's cousin, has given Souvenir d'Anne Frank his blessing and full support, allowing the use of Anne's own words from her diary. The Anne Frank Trust UK, partnered with the Anne Frank House, in Amsterdam will be working with Ensemble to deliver the project.
Souvenir d'Anne Frank has been supported by the National Lottery through Arts Council England, and Spelthorne Borough Council.
