THE HIDING PLACE
US, 2023, 143 minutes, Colour.
Nan Gurley, John Schuck, Carrie Tillis.
Directed by Laura Matula.
The first thing to say is that this is a very worthy drama. It is the story of Carrie ten Boom, her sister, Betsy, her father and extended family, who saved 800 Jews during World War II, hiding them in their house in Harlem, Holland. It would be seen as a complementary story to The Diary of Anne Frank. Corrie ten Boom wrote the story of the hiding of the Jews as well as the internment of Betsy and herself in Ravensbruck concentration camp. There was a faith-based version of the story in the 1975 film of the same name, starring Julie Harris as Corrie.
The second thing to say is that this is a filmed version of a theatrical performance. On the one hand, it is valuable to have a version of a theatre event. On the other hand, the audience response to a filmed play is different from that for the cinematic treatment of a drama. The staging is very much stagebound. It is over to the inventiveness of the director and camera crew, and editors, to find the right angles, the close-ups, movement, for a cinematic response. The performances can be very much stagebound as well, theatrical, dialogue sometimes rather rhetorical, stylised.
Having said that, it is to the credit of Rabbit Room Theatre to have staged The Hiding Place, written by A.S.Peterson based on the book. And, to their credit, that they have filmed a performance in Nashville.
The theatrical effect is immediately evident as members of the cast come on stage, suitcases, searching, indication of what is to come. Throughout the play, the older Corrie ten Boom speaks to the audience, is interrogated by a Nazi official, but with some scenes of flashbacks, to her watchmaker father and his shop, to her sister, Betsy, and the love in the family.
However, the main action is the beginning of the invasion of Holland, Jewish refugees, the Dutch underground sheltering the Jews, finding food cards to sustain them, eventually coming to the ten Boom shop, being hidden, being fed, able to be moved on – with, as has been noted, 800 Jews saved from being taken to the concentration camps. The ten Booms were Dutch Calvinists, so a strict interpretation of God’s will, of Christian love, and it being tested by extremes, the challenges of forgiveness. This is particularly the case when an arrogant young German comes to work in the shop, smugly superior, eventually joining the army, patrolling in Harlem, seen at Ravensbruck – and, at the end, the focus for Corrie and forgiveness.
Nan Gurley is particularly forceful in the role of Corrie, not a simple saintly character, but generous, fearful, angry, challenged by Christian charity demands of forgiveness.
There is some tension in the hiding sequences, even more tension when the family is arrested, taken prisoner, then to the concentration camp, the father dying, Betsy, eventually dying, Corrie and the women in the camp – and her surprising eventual release, attributed to a clerical error. The war ends. Corrie returns home, meets the underground members who have survived, wants a memorial to what has happened, begins her travels around the world and her writing to continue the mission of remembrance, the sufferings and death in the Holocaust and the consequences for the world.
1. The story of the ten Boom family, World War II, Holland in Harlem, the Nazi invasion, Jewish refugees, hiding the refugees? A story complementary to that of the Diary of Anne Frank?
2. Corrie and her books, her campaign after the war? The Hiding Place, its impact after the war, the film version of 1975, a faith-based film? This version?
3. The adaptation for the stage, the writer incorporating the key themes of the book, the flashbacks to the girls’ childhood and their relationship with their father, the situation of the war, the hiding of the Jews, the arrest, the concentration camp life, Betsy’s death, Corrie’s release?
4. A filmed version of the theatrical performance, the role of the camera, close-ups, framing, scenes, the stage? Performances, theatrical, rhetorical, humane? The musical score?
5. Audience response to filmed plays, as different from cinema responses? To staging and confinement to the stage, particular focus points of the camera, close-ups et cetera? The spoken dialogue?
6. The opening, the cast coming onto the stage with their suitcases, indication of themes? The focus on Corrie, her age, her reminiscences, the scenes of her childhood, the devoted father, sister and brother, the shop and the watches? The focus on the train travel, lifting the heavy case, images used later?
7. The framework of Corrie, the Nazi officer, the interrogation, the flashbacks to the various stages of the war, her inhuman honesty, the underground and resistance, having to lie to the German authorities?
8. 1940, the Nazi invasion, Otto coming from Germany to work in the shop, young, arrogant and superior, despising the family? The war breaking out, his enlisting, his arrogance in the Army, towards the family, the later encounter in the concentration camp?
9. The situation in the family, the brother, his social concerns and work, Betsy more fragile, in the shop, Corrie with strength, helping her father? The father, personality, the Dutch Calvinist tradition, Christian ethics?
10. The invasion, difficulties, food and rationing cards? The underground and the connections, David, his links, network, Mr Pickwick?
11. The Jewish refugees coming to the door, the response of the family, the increasing numbers, hiding the Jews, the transition for many to hide and then move on, the issue of the food tickets, Corrie going to the man in charge, persuading him, the many tickets, feeding the refugees? The building of the hiding place?
12. The Germans, Otto, intruding into the house, the search – and the irony of Betsy in the kitchen and the couple hiding under the table, the joke about under the table and the Germans not looking?
13. 800 Jews passing through the house?
14. The betrayal, the arrest, taken to the concentration camp, the death of their father, Betsy on Corrie going to Ravensbruck, the huts with the women, the work, Betsy’s declining health, her death and the solemnity? Corrie, being questioned about her life in the camp, then let go, the women going to the gas chambers, Corrie and the clerical error?
15. Her return home, the encounter with Mr Pickwick, reflecting on the war, the effort? Corrie wanting a Memorial? The beginning of her travels, speaking, writing?
