Anna Christie

   Eugene O'Neill won a second Pulitzer Prize in 1922 (following his first in 1920 for Beyond the Horizon) for this moody, character-driven drama, a revision of his earlier play, Chris Christopherson, which had failed in its tryout despite Lynn Fontanne in the role of Anna. Directed by Arthur Hopkins with scene designs by Robert Edmond Jones and Pauline Lord and George Marion leading the cast, Anna Christie opened on 2 November 1921 at the Vanderbilt Theatre for a 177-performance run. A motion picture version in 1930 was famously advertised as Greta Garbo's first "talkie" (Garbo also played the role in a simultaneously filmed German-language version with a different supporting cast), and the play inspired a 1957 musical adaptation, New Girl in Town, with a libretto by George Abbott.

   At Johnny-the-Priest's barroom on the New York wharfside, Scandinavian seaman Chris Christopherson awaits his daughter, Anna, whom he has not seen since she was a child. Believing that Anna would be better off living on a farm in Minnesota, Chris sent her there but does not know she suffered sexual abuse at the hands of a cousin during her adolescence and that to support herself she works as a prostitute on the streets of St. Paul. Anna arrives, exhausted, despairing, and alcoholic, but is rejuvenated by her proximity to the sea, describing it as something lost that she had been longing to find again. Anna manages to keep her profession a secret for a time, but when her father's shipmate, Mat Burke, falls in love with her and proposes marriage, Anna, feeling that she is not good enough, confesses her sordid past. This revelation impels both Mat and Chris to get drunk and sign up for long hitches at sea. However, both reconcile with Anna before departing and she promises to await their return. Anna Christie has been revived on Broadway in 1952 (with Celeste Holm*), 1977 (with Liv Ullmann*), and 1993 (with Natasha Richardson* and Liam Neeson*).