Don’t be fooled by the title: this is not about Anne Frank. Nathan Englander’s play is set during a dinner party in the smart Florida home of a secular Jewish couple Debbie (Caroline Catz) and Phil (Joshua Malina).
Debbie’s old high school friend Shoshana (Dorothea Myer-Bennett) and her husband Yerucham (Simon Yadoo) are late converts to the Orthodoxy and Debbie warns her combative lawyer husband to behave himself – which is like telling a pyromaniac not to light the blue touch paper. Yerucham and Shoshana have hardly stepped through the door before Phil is making challenging remarks while the guests return fire with equally sharp-edged humour.
As vodka bottles are emptied, the scorching dialogue inflicts flesh wounds on national identity, the importance of family, money, faith and hypocrisy.
It’s hysterically funny, especially after Debbie produces her son Trevor’s dope stash.
A smartass slacker, Trevor (Gabriel Howell) introduces each scene and adds the cynically impassioned voice of his generation.
Directed con brio by Patrick Marber, the play approaches the satirical savagery of Bruce ‘Clybourne Park’ Norris – a comparison I don’t make lightly. Book now.
Running at Marylebone Theatre until November 23. Tickets: 0207 723 7984.