'The Diary of Anne Frank' review

To the millennial generation, the Holocaust is ancient history. But to the young woman playing the title role in "The Diary of Anne Frank" at Bay Street, it's family history.

Jessica Mortellaro dedicates her performance to her Austrian-born grandmother and Polish-born grandfather who fled the Nazis. "Because my grandparents were Holocaust survivors, I've always wanted to play Anne Frank," Mortellaro says. They died 15 years ago, she says, but were around long enough for her to know them.

Mortellaro is almost too late to the role. At 29, she's a diminutive actress who could pass for 18. But 13 to 15 -- the adolescent years Anne Frank spent in hiding -- is a stretch. Still, Mortellaro's bursting-out-of-her-skin impatience with living in circumstances where her only privacy is on the pages of her diary convinces us that she's younger than her appearance suggests.

This "Diary," crisply directed by Joe Minutello and abridged to 90 minutes as part of Bay Street's Literature Live! schools program, is open to the public on weekends. Gary Hygom's multilevel set and Mike Billings' gloomy lighting capture the claustrophobia-inducing space in Amsterdam where eight Jews -- including Anne, her sister, Margot, and their parents -- hid for two years. Their mood is echoed in music by Dan Goodale. Margot is played by Georgia Warner in shy contrast to her kid sister. As portrayed by Lydia Franco-Hodges, Mrs. Frank is stoic except when exasperated by Anne, which happens frequently, while Otto Frank (Keith Cornelius) maintains a soothing calm.

The Van Daams join the Franks in hiding, along with Mr. Dussel (Terrance Fiore), whose pessimism is corrosive. Mr. and Mrs. Van Daam know how to push each other's buttons like a true married couple, as Josh Gladstone and Kate Mueth are in real life. Son Peter (Sawyer Avery) keeps to himself until Anne, in her romantic stirrings, breaks through his reserve.

Chloë Dirksen as Miep and Joe Pallister as Mr. Kraler are keepers of the secret place. They bring supplies, increasingly meager as the war drags on, and news from the war front.

Anne's diary ends abruptly. "In spite of everything," she writes before the Nazis storm in, "I still believe that people are really good at heart."

It's difficult to keep such faith in light of Anne's fate and, in a post-performance presentation, the harrowing travails of a living Holocaust survivor, Werner Reich.