Anna Christie

Anna Christie is a play in four acts by Eugene O'Neill. It made its Broadway debut at the Vanderbilt Theatre on November 2, 1921. O'Neill received the 1922 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for this work.

Anna Christie
Pauline Lord in the original Broadway production of Anna Christie (1921)
Written byEugene O'Neill
Date premieredNovember 2, 1921
Place premieredVanderbilt Theatre
New York City
Original languageEnglish
SubjectA former prostitute falls in love, but runs into difficulty in turning her life around
GenreDrama
Setting1910; a New York City saloon; on a barge at anchor in Provincetown

Plot summary

Anna Christie is the story of a former prostitute who falls in love, but runs into difficulty in turning her life around.

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

Act I

The first act takes place in a bar owned by Johnny the Priest and tended by Larry. Coal-barge captain Old Chris receives a letter from his daughter, a young woman he has not seen since he lived in Sweden with his family and she was five years old. They meet at the bar and she agrees to go to the coal barge with him.

Act II

The barge crew rescues Mat Burke and four other men who survived a shipwreck in an open boat. Anna and Mat don't get along at first, but quickly fall in love.

Act III

A confrontation on the barge among Anna, Chris and Mat. Mat wants to marry Anna, Chris does not want her to marry a sailor, and Anna doesn't want either of them to think they can control her. She tells them the truth about her past: She was raped while living with her mother's relatives on a Minnesota farm, worked briefly as a nurse's aide, then became a prostitute. Mat reacts angrily, and he and Chris leave.

Act IV

Mat and Chris return. Anna forgives Chris for not being part of her childhood. After a dramatic confrontation, Anna promises to abandon prostitution and Mat forgives her. Chris agrees to their marriage. Chris and Mat have both signed to work aboard a ship that is leaving for South Africa the next day. They promise to return to Anna after the voyage.

Productions
Pauline Lord as Anna Christopherson, James T. Mack as Johnny-the-Priest, and Eugenie Blair as Marthy Owen in the original Broadway production of Anna Christie (1921)

O'Neill's first version of this play, begun in January 1919, was titled Chris Christopherson and performed as Chris in out-of-town tryouts. 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 version, play, now titled Anna Christie, had its premiere on Broadway at the Vanderbilt Theatre on November 2, 1921, and ran for 177 performances before closing in April 1923. The production was staged by Arthur Hopkins and starred Pauline Lord. The desk on which O'Neill wrote the play is preserved and on display at his family's former home, Monte Cristo Cottage in Connecticut.[1]

Alexander Woollcott in The New York Times called it "a singularly engrossing play", 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."[2]

The London West End premiere 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]

Revivals
Poster for the 1977 Broadway revival by James McMullan

Adaptations
Blanche Sweet's Anna Christie was featured on the cover of The Silver Sheet, a studio publication promoting Thomas Ince Productions (1923)

The play was adapted by Bradley King for a 1923 film of the same name directed by John Griffith Wray and Thomas H. Ince, with stars Blanche Sweet, William Russell, George F. Marion, and Eugenie Besserer.

A 1930 film adaptation by Frances Marion was directed by Clarence Brown and starred Greta Garbo, Charles Bickford, George F. Marion and Marie Dressler. This pre-Code film 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, who had performed the role of Anna's father in the original Broadway production, reprised the role in both the 1923 and 1930 film adaptations.

A German-language adaptation, also starring Garbo, was filmed in 1930 and released the same year, using the same production as the English language film that had concluded filming in 1929. This version was adapted by Frances Marion, translated by Walter Hasenclever and directed by Jacques Feyder. In addition to Garbo, the cast included Theo Shall, Hans Junkermann, and Salka Viertel.

In 1957, a thoroughly reworked adaptation by George Abbott with music and lyrics by Bob Merrill, called New Girl in Town, opened on Broadway. It ran for 431 performances.

In 2018, Encompass New Opera Theatre presented an opera adaptation composed by Edward Thomas with a libretto by Joe Masteroff at the Baruch College Performing Arts Center in New York City. Directed by Nancy Rhodes and conducted by Julian Wachner, it featured Melanie Long in the title role, Frank Basile as Chris, Jonathan Estabrooks as Mat, Joe Hermlayn as Marthy and Mike Pirozzi as Larry. It ran for 12 performances.[10] A recording with the original cast, produced by Thomas Z. Shepard and conducted by Julian Wachner, with the orchestra NOVUS New York, will be released by Broadway Records on August 16, 2019. It is a collaboration of Trinity Church and Encompass New Opera Theatre.[11]

Trivia

According to actress Ellen Burstyn in the 2012 film Marilyn in Manhattan, Marilyn Monroe performed a scene from Anna Christie at the Actors Studio with Maureen Stapleton. Calling the story "legendary," Burstyn said, "Everybody who saw that says that it was not only the best work Marilyn ever did, it was some of the best work ever seen at Studio, and certainly the best interpretation of Anna Christie anybody ever saw. She...achieved real greatness in that scene." (According to some biographers, Monroe was molested by foster parents and worked as a prostitute.)

Awards and nominations
Awards
  • 1922 Pulitzer Prize for Drama
  • 1993 Drama Desk Award for Best Revival of a Play
  • 1993 Tony Award for Best Revival of a Play
  • 2011 Olivier Award for Best Revival of a Play
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References
  1. Schmidt, Shannon McKenna and Joni Rendon. Novel Destinations: Literary Landmarks from Jane Austen's Bath to Ernest Heminway's Key West. Washington, D.C.: National Geographic, 2008: 13. ISBN 978-1-4262-0277-3
  2. Alexander Woollcott (November 13, 1921). "Anna Christie: Second Thoughts on First Nights". New York Times. Archived from the original on August 29, 2018. Retrieved October 13, 2008.
  3. Time writers (April 21, 1923). "Notes". Time. Retrieved October 13, 2008.
  4. https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2010/oct/19/young-vic-40th-birthday-anniversary
  5. https://www.thedailybeast.com/earthy-beauty
  6. Anna, Christie (January 5, 2002). "2002 Pacific Resident Theatre". pacificresidenttheatre.com. Retrieved January 5, 2002.
  7. Girvan, Andrew (April 15, 2012). "2012 Olivier Award winners". Whatsonstage.com. Archived from the original on June 19, 2012. Retrieved July 21, 2012.
  8. Billington, Michael (August 9, 2011). "Anna Christie – review". The Guardian. Retrieved September 2, 2011.
  9. Spencer, Charles (August 10, 2011). "Anna Christie, Donmar Warehouse, Review". The Telegraph. Retrieved September 2, 2011.
  10. "Masteroff & Thomas' Anna Christie, an Opera 18 Years in the Making".
  11. "Anna Christie (World Premiere Recording)".

Further reading
  • O'Neill, Eugene (1923). Anna Christie: A Play in Four Acts (First ed.). London: Jonathan Cape. OCLC 252007125.
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