Higher Ground

Every time we swing by Temple Carrig, dang, it makes us wish we could go back to school.

For one, GG could finally sort out our misspelt yuoth.

This afternoon, the Blacklion school’s little mini-theatre – originally built as a science lab, Principal Alan Cox tells us – is buzzing as final preparations for their upcoming production of The Diary Of Anne Frank get underway.

So, just as the outrageously good samba drumming demonstrations comes to a juddering, stuttering halt in the main foyer, upstairs, adults and kids are dancing around one another, as costumes are tweaked, 1940s hairlines are perfected, minor changes are scribbled on worn and torn scripts, and everyone gets the butterfly giggles over the magic they’re creating together.

And ever since it was first published in Amsterdam, back in 1947, The Diary Of Anne Frank has weaved a special kind of magic on the world. Here, in perhaps the 20th century’s very darkest period, was a light, a light that refused to go out, and refused to believe that there wasn’t good in the world, even though millions of innocent people were having their freedom, their dignity, their livelihoods and their very lives systematically taken away from them.

Charting the two years – from June 14th 1942 to August 1st, 1944 – that the young Dutch girl and her family spent hiding from the nazis, Anne Frank’s simple diary has now been translated into 60 languages, and is, as young Cox is quick to point out, far from depressing, but “a remarkable piece of drama – very uplifting and inspiring“.

And, for once, the man’s not wrong.

You can find out for yourself when the show opens on Monday, April 29th, running nightly, at 7.30pm, until Friday, May 4th. Tickets are just €10 for adults and €5 for students, with the proceeds from the opening night going to support two Transition Year students heading out to Cambodia to do volunteer work.

In the meantime, we caught up with Martha and Abbie, two of the three Annes in the production, and we also caught a quick glimpse of this afternoon’s dress rehearsal… 

You can grab your tickets for The Diary of Anne Frank by ringing Temple Carrig on 012873610.