THE HIDING PLACE Extends Theatrical Run After Successful Opening
By Movieguide® Contributor
THE HIDING PLACE’s success has earned the movie an extended theatrical run through the first half of August.
“We believe the ten Boom’s story is one that deserves to be told for a new generation and are thrilled to see audiences respond favorably to it,” said A. S. Peterson, THE HIDING PLACE’s Playwright and Artistic Director of Rabbit Room Theatre. “We hope filmgoers won’t miss the opportunity to be encouraged by this true story of a family who put aside their own comfort and safety to courageously do what was right in the face of unthinkable evil.”
THE HIDING PLACE is a filmed version of the show’s stage-play adaptation. It tells the story of Corrie ten Boom and her family, who helped hide hundreds of Jewish refugees during WWII before the Nazis discovered them.
“They were living lives of hidden, quiet obedience day after day,” Nan Gurley, who plays ten Boom, tells Movieguide®. “They were hospitable people…So when they got tapped on the shoulder, ‘Will you join the resistance? Will you hide using your home?’ They just kept on doing what they had been doing for years. It’s just the stakes are a whole lot higher. The stakes were now life and death. But they were ready.”
Ten Boom told her family’s story in her bestselling memoir, also titled “The Hiding Place.”
“In the 50 years since she told her story, there’s not been another retelling of it,” Peterson said of adapting the book for the stage. “In a sense, the generation that fell in love with Corrie ten Boom as she traveled the world and as people watched the movie and read her book, that generation is in their 60s and 70s and 80s now. They love her desperately, but there’s another generation that would say, ‘Corrie, who?’ So I think it’s a privilege for me to take the impact of that story and hopefully deliver it to a new generation because it’s not a story I think should be forgotten. I think Corrie is one of the heroes of the faith in a capital letter kind of way. We’re on the verge of maybe forgetting that.”
Gurley agreed with Peterson about the importance of spreading this story.
“Because it will reach so many, more people will get to know this story. The current generation doesn’t know a lot about Corrie… the names of the people in that cloud of witnesses,” the actress told CBN when asked about the importance of taking this show to screens across the country.
THE HIDING PLACE premiered August 3 and played again on the 5th. Ticket sales were so high that the movie will now be shown August 9 and 14. It will also premiere internationally on August 16.
“We are thrilled our cinema partners are holding this over and giving moviegoers a chance to see this new theatrical production of the best-selling memoir, ‘The Hiding Place,’” said Kymberli Frueh, senior vice president for Programming and Content Acquisitions for Trafalgar Releasing. “The response has been overwhelmingly positive, and we are grateful that more fans will get to see this very important and inspirational work.”
A portion of the Movieguide® review reads:
For the video of a play, THE HIDING PLACE has remarkable cinematography and editing. The producers made this production both theatre and cinema. The play is a bit overlong. However, the cast delivers beautiful performances where the light of Christ, which indwelt every member of the ten Boom family’s clandestine operation, shines through the script’s dialogue. Since most of the play is straight from Corrie ten Boom’s words, her Christian worldview is ever-present. THE HIDING PLACE deals frankly with the harsh reality of The Holocaust, viewers of all ages will find THE HIDING PLACE spiritually and morally edifying.
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