Anna Christie

Anna Christie is a four-act play by Eugene O'Neill, first performed in its revised form in 1921 and first published in 1922. It is a drama of return and disclosure set between waterfront saloons and a coal barge.

After fifteen years apart, Swedish barge captain Chris Christopherson expects a sheltered daughter but meets an exhausted young woman carrying a history he does not know. Life aboard the barge gives Anna new strength, making the sea both danger and renewal.

When the crew rescues shipwrecked stoker Mat Burke, his attraction to Anna develops under Chris's resistance. Anna's account of abuse and sex work tests both men's idealized images of her and exposes judgment divided by gender.

O'Neill's dialect, fog, confined cabins, and repeated blame of “dat ole davil sea” keep reconciliation from becoming easy sentiment. Anna demands the right to name her own experience, placing belonging on the side of truth rather than innocence imagined by father or lover.

"SCENE—"Johnny-The-Priest's" saloon near South Street, New York City. The stage is divided into two sections, showing a small back room on the right. On the left, forward, of the barroom, a large window looking out on the street. Beyond it, the main entrance—a double swinging door."