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'''Anna Christie''' is a play in four acts by Eugene O'Neill. It tells the story of a former prostitute who falls in love, but runs into difficulty in turning her life around. The play won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1922.

Contents

Plot

Premiere

Revivals

1952

1977

1993

London

1923

1936

1979

1992

Notable productions internationally

Sweden

Characters

Film Adaptations

Other adaptations

See also

References

External links

Plot

Act I takes place in the bar, owned by Johnny the Priest and tended by Larry. Old Chris, a coal barge captain, receives a letter from his daughter, a young woman whom he has not seen since she was a baby. They meet at the bar and she agrees to go on the coal barge with him. The rest of the play takes place on the barge.
In Act II, the barge crew rescues Mat Burke and four other men, who were in an open boat after a shipwreck. After not getting along at first, Mat and Anna fall in love.
Act III is a confrontation between Anna, Chris and Mat. Mat wants to marry Anna, Chris does not want them to get married because he doesn't want her to marry a sailor, and Anna is upset with both of them for trying to be in charge of her. Anna tells them the truth about her life, that she was raped while living with her mother's relatives on a Minnesota farm, and then became a prostitute after her time as a nurse's aide. Mat gets very angry, and Mat and Chris both leave.
In Act IV, Mat and Chris return. Anna forgives Chris for not being part of her childhood, and after a dramatic confrontation, Mat forgives Anna for being a prostitute after she promises never to be one again, and Chris agrees to them getting married. It turns out that Chris and Mat have both signed up for the same ship going to South Africa, and they are about to leave the next day, but promise to come home to Anna after the voyage. The play ends there, with a rather unresolved ending.

Premiere

O'Neill's first version of the play, begun in January 1919, was entitled ''Chris Christopherson'' (but performed as ''Chris''). It had out-of-town tryouts but was deemed inadequate for Broadway. O’Neill revised it radically, changing the barge captain’s daughter Anna from a pure woman needing to be protected into a prostitute who finds reformation and love from life on the sea. The new play, now entitled ''Anna Christie'' received its premiere on Broadway at the Vanderbilt Theatre on 2 November, 1921, in a production staged by Arthur Hopkins and starring Pauline Lord. It ran for 177 performances.
Alexander Woollcott in the ''New York Times'' called it "a singularly engrossing play",^[1] and advised that "all grown-up playgoers should jot down in their notebooks the name of ''Anna Christie'' as that of a play they really ought to see."^[1]

Revivals

1952

The play was revived at the Lyceum Theatre on 23 January, 1952 in a production staged by Michael Gordon and designed by Emeline C. Roche with Celeste Holm as Anna, Kevin McCarthy and Arthur O'Connell. It ran for only 8 performances.

1977

The play was revived at the Imperial Theatre on 14 April , 1977 in a production directed by José Quintero and designed by Ben Edwards. It starred Liv Ullmann as Anna, Robert Donley, John Lithgow and Mary McCarty. It received Tony nominations for Liv Ullman as Best Actress and for Mary McCarty as Best Featured Actress. It ran for 124 performances.

1993

The play was most recently revived on Broadway on 14 January, 1993 in a production by The Roundabout Theatre Company at the Criterion Center Stage Right. It was directed by David Leveaux and designed by John Lee Beatty. It starred Natasha Richardson, Liam Neeson, Anne Meara, and Rip Torn. It received Tony nominations for Best Actress (Natasha Richardson), Best Actor (Liam Neeson), Best Featured Actress (Anne Meara), Best Direction (David Leveaux) and won the award for Best Revival. The production also received the Theatre World Award for Neeson and Richardson and won the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Revival of a Play and for Outstanding Actress in a Play (Richardson). It ran for 54 performances.

London

1923

The original London production was staged at the Strand Theatre (now the Novello) in 1923. This was the first time an O'Neill play was seen in the West End. The play starred Pauline Lord, who had been the original Anna Christie on Broadway.
The play had a great reception. TIME Magazine wrote, "In London, the first night of Eugene O'Neill's ''Anna Christie'', with Pauline Lord in the title role, received a tremendous ovation. After the first act the curtain was rung up a dozen times during the applause.^[3]. The ''Daily Telegraph's critic wrote:

Every now and then in a theatrical season, sandwiched in between the first nights of plays that are, generally speaking, either ordinarily good or extraordinarily bad, there comes a production which strikes you as being of outstanding importance and interest, such an event occurred last night at the Strand Theatre... ^[4]

1936

In 1936, a revival at the Westminster Theatre starred Flora Robson with Mark Dignam, Alexander Knox, Anthony Howard, Edward Rigby, Philip King and Niall MacGinnis also in the cast. The play was directed by Michael MacOwen.

1979

In 1979, the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC), under the direction of Jonathan Lynn, mounted a new production in Stratford and London. The title role was played by Susan Tracy and others in the cast included Gareth Thomas, Fulton MacKay, Ian McNeice and Lila Kaye.

1992

In 1992, the Young Vic mounted a revival with Natasha Richardson in the title role with John Woodvine. This won Richardson the London Drama Critics Poll for Best Actress and was instrumental in the 1993 Broadway revival.

Notable productions internationally

Sweden

The 1923 production at Helsingborg City Theatre, directed by Gerda Lundequist.

Characters

★ “Johnny the Priest”

★ Two longshoremen

★ A postman

★ Larry - bartender

★ Chris C. Christopherson - captain of the barge “Simeon Winthrop”

★ Marthy Owen

★ Anna Christopherson - Chris’s daughter

★ Mat Burke - a stoker

★ Johnson - deckhand on barge

Film Adaptations

★ ''Main article: Anna Christie (1923 film)''

★
★ ''Anna Christie (1923 film)'' - Starring Blanche Sweet, William Russell, George F. Marion and Eugenie Besserer. It was adapted by Bradley King and directed by John Griffith Wray and Thomas H. Ince.

★ ''Main article: Anna Christie (1930 film)''

★
★ ''Anna Christie (1930 film)'' - Starring Greta Garbo, Charles Bickford, George F. Marion and Marie Dressler. It was adapted by Frances Marion and directed by Clarence Brown. It was nominated for Academy Awards for Best Actress in a Leading Role (Greta Garbo), Best Cinematography and Best Director. This pre-Code film is the movie that used the marketing slogan "Garbo Talks!", as it was her first talkie. Her first spoken line has become her most famous: "Give me a whiskey with ginger ale on the side, and don't be stingy, baby." George F. Marion had performed the role of Anna's father in the original Broadway production and both the 1923 and 1930 films.

★ ''Main article: Anna Christie (1931 film)''

★
★ ''Anna Christie (1931 film)'' - A German language production was released in early 1931. It starred Greta Garbo, Theo Shall, Hans Junkermann and Salka Viertel. This version was adapted by Frances Marion and the dialogue written in German by Walter Hasenclever. It was directed by Jacques Feyder. This version was shot simultaneously with the English-language version, but with a different crew; Garbo was the only actor in both versions and noticeably differs in her appearance between the two versions. According to the 2005 DVD release of the film -- which included both the English and German versions -- Garbo much preferred the German version.

Other adaptations

★ The 1957 George Abbott-Bob Merrill musical ''New Girl in Town'' was based on O'Neill's play.

★ A 1957 United Kingdom television production starred Sean Connery and Diane Cilento.

★ A 1965 Argentina television production starred Violeta Antier and Lautaro Murúa.

See also

★ List of films made in Weimar Germany

References

1. NY Times
2. NY Times
3. TIME
4. Novello

External links

★ Production: Anna Christie - ''Working in the Theatre Seminar'' video at American Theatre Wing.org, January 1993