The MSU Department of Theatre’s production of “The Diary of Anne Frank” was a job well done.

For two years, the Franks, Van Daans and dentist Mr. Dussell hid from the Nazis in the Secret Annex, a hidden apartment above a factory.

Between 8 a.m. and 6 p.m. they could not use the toilet or raise their voices and had to walk without shoes, so factory workers below would not hear them.

And conveying boredom without being boring was a task successfully executed by the actors in this play.

The tone of the show was laced with humdrum, intense and humorous elements, fluctuating with characters’ moods or situations under the veil of impending doom and the hope of liberation.

The cast used the original script, by Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett, and inserted new material from an adapted version by Wendy Kesselman.

Added were voice-overs of Anne’s diary entries, a nice addition to the show that renders Anne achingly human.

Anne bounds into the attic as if she’s going on a camping trip, and theater freshman Megan Milota portrays the 13-year-old as a somewhat obnoxious little drama queen.

She does not remain this way, however.

Milota has the challenging job of aging Anne two years in a few hours, during which she evolves into a more somber young woman, suffering from nightmares and fits of panic.

And with Anne’s optimism remaining intact, Milota’s three-dimensional portrayal was excellent.

Otto Frank, played by theater graduate student Jay Burns, emanates boundless patience and calm, acting as a cheerleader and counselor to the attic residents.

Burns’ Mr. Frank keeps the occupants sane; his only mild outbursts being in phrases such as: “We don’t need the Nazis to destroy us, we’re destroying ourselves.”

Mr. and Mrs. Van Daan are ill-tempered from the get-go, and it would have been nice to see their temperaments better paced, as Mr. Van Daan (theater junior Jason Wagner) and his brood immediately stomp around gruffly.

But Mr. Van Daan’s descent from a bumbling loudmouth to a bewildered and sad man is tear-evoking.

And the Van Daans’ love for one another, despite the pointless squabbles that ensue, is touching.

By the end of the play, however, tensions reach a peak.

The eternally grumpy Mr. Dussell (theater junior Mike McKeogh) has really had it, as he fervently divides the occupants’ rotten potato rations in a near-possessed state.

Mrs. Frank, (theater graduate student Deborah Draheim) who has reserved almost all of her grievances, finally cracks in a stirring and heated outburst.

And luckily, Draheim’s handling of this was superb and swift, as it could easily have been overdramatized.

Soon after, though, their worst fears are recognized, as the Secret Annex residents are arrested by the Gestapo, taken with only enough time to shove a few possessions into their rucksacks.

And the diary was left behind.

The audience best expressed the effect of the play’s solemn and disturbing ending.

When Otto Frank returns to the attic, years later at the end of the show, he describes how every other character has died. The stage blacks out, and a beam of light illuminates Anne’s diary.

A heavy silence ensued for several moments before the applause, as it seems the audience didn’t know whether to clap or cry after this moving tribute to those who died in the Holocaust.

The show is at 7:30 p.m. Thursday and 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday at Wharton Center’s Pasant Theatre.

Tickets are $10 for the general public and $8 for students with ID and seniors 60 or older. Tickets are available at the Wharton Center box office, or by calling 432-2000 or (800) WHARTON.

For further information contact the Department of Theatre at 355-6690.