Anna Christie -- starring Alison Elliott and Stacy Keach (Audio Theatre Series) [UNABRIDGED] (Audio Cassette)

~ Eugene O'Neill (Author), L.A. Theatre Works (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

This play by Nobel laureate O'Neill centers around Anna, a young woman who, after an illness, decides to spend some time with the father she knows only from occasional letters. While with him, a coal barge captain, she meets Matt, a sailor who's ready to settle down, and the two fall in love. Believing herself unworthy of happiness, Anna reveals secrets from her past that test both her father's and Matt's love. In this expert production, scenes are painted through dialog and the unobtrusive use of sound effects. The actors reveal vivid and distinct characters, and the listener never has to wonder who's speaking. Highly recommended to libraries that serve students and those who love theater.
-Adrienne Furness, Lockport P.L., NY
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Description

The passion between a ship captain's long estranged daughter and a rough-hewn sailor takes a tumultuous turn when she confesses to a past of prostitution.

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Product Details

• Audio Cassette
• Publisher: L.A. Theatre Works; Unabridged edition (December 30, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1580811337
• ISBN-13: 978-1580811330
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 5.8 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #3,810,219 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Anna is one of the U.S. theater's most memorable characters, September 9, 2001

By	Michael J. Mazza (Pittsburgh, PA USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 100 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)    (COMMUNITY FORUM 04)

This review is from: Anna Christie (Dover Thrift Editions) (Paperback)

"Anna Christie," the play by the great U.S. writer Eugene O'Neill, won the Pulitzer Prize for the 1921-22 theater season. All these decades later, the play still packs an emotional punch. "Anna Christie" focuses on three characters: Anna, who has had a traumatic life in the United States; her father Chris, a Swedish merchant seaman; and Mat Burke, an Irish stoker who takes an interest in Anna. The play takes place in New York City and on Chris's barge.

"Anna Christie" is a compelling study of gender roles and expectations, ethnic conflict in the U.S., family ties and disruptions, the call of the seafaring life, and fatalism versus the embrace of free will. Particularly interesting is O'Neill's representation of various types of vernacular speech. Overall, a classic American play that deserves an ongoing reading audience.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars O'Neill's first momentous play and its unforgettable heroine, September 25, 2004

By	D. Cloyce Smith (Brooklyn, NY) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)

This review is from: Anna Christie (Dover Thrift Editions) (Paperback)

With the 1921 production of "Anna Christie," O'Neill's skills as a dramatist finally reached maturity. Entirely revamped from an earlier play ("Chris Christophersen"), this four-act drama depicts a headstrong young woman, Anna, who renounces her life as a prostitute and tracks down the father who abandoned her as a child. Enamored of his new charge and unaware of her past, Christopherson (O'Neill changed the spelling for this version) tries to pamper and protect the daughter he had neglected during her formative years.

Yet Chistopherson has issues of his own: now a captain of a coastal coal barge, he, too, has lived a seafaring live of loose morals and social irresponsibility. Believing that the vigorous demands and easy temptations of a sailor's career have ruined his own life, he has abandoned the sea for good. Confronted with a daughter who initially enjoys life on the ocean, he swears to keep her both from its influence and from the men who make their living from it--with predictable results.

When Anna falls in love with Mat, a stoker for a steamer, she finds herself torn between her father's expectations and her lover's demands, and she discovers that both men, like the clients from her previous life, are buffoonish cads and patronizing bullies. The third act, which depicts the inevitable three-side confrontation between Anna and her two "protectors," is one of the most skillfully scripted clashes in American theater.

The final act, alas, succumbs to a conventional melodramatic mawkishness. Yet overall the play is saved by the faithful rendering of sailor's speech, the emotional depth of its characters, and the (for its time) forward-looking presentation of social ills.

5.0 out of 5 stars Anna Christie -- That Devil Sea, March 6, 2007

By	Barbs - See all my reviews

This review is from: Anna Christie (Dover Thrift Editions) (Paperback)

I read this play a few weeks ago and I must say it's fantastic. Of course there are some parts that are disappointing, but Eugene O'Neill draws the characters in such a way that you cannot help but relate to them.

Anna is so strong, so independent, so conflicted, and so human! Even if some people don't like the ending, I think it makes sense the way it is.

Great read, short play, and I think I like it better than Long Day's Journey Into Night, although it's usually regarded as O'Neill's best work.