Anna Christie
From: Thursday, 4th August 2011
To: Saturday, 8 October 2011
Our Review: 
Your Reviews:
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Synopsis
Audiences first heard Greta Garbo's voice in the film version of Eugene O'Neill s Pulitzer Prize winning classic which takes us back to the East Coast of America in 1910. This powerful drama deals with the relationship between an old Swedish sailor and his only daughter Anna. She has come to live with him to try and escape her hard and degrading past and soon attracts the attention of an Irish sailor who wants to marry her against her father s wishes. Influenced by the young writers own experiences at sea, O'Neill s gritty play is beautifully detailed and thronging with characters from the waterfront low-life.
Our Review:
10 August 2011
According to his curtain-raiser interviews, Jude Law has been aching to outgrow his pretty-boy image and prove his mettle as a proper actor. It's unfortunate, in that case, that the preview word-of-mouth for this revival of Eugene O'Neill's drama Anna Christie has been dominated by the state of Law's naked upper body.
This is indeed quite something: he has beefed up for the role while retaining a ballet dancer's abdominal control, and anybody drawn to the production on these grounds will not be disappointed – particularly since nobody is ever far away at the Donmar Warehouse.
For those with minds on higher things, there is much else to admire about Rob Ashford's production of this 1920 Pulitzer Prize-winning drama about an ex-prostitute reunited with her long-absent Swedish father, a coal-barge captain, and who then captures the heart of a shipwrecked Irish sailor.
Law is superb as the manic, histrionic Mat Burke, a Blarney ...
Latest User Review
David Baxter - 23 September 2011:
My fourth show in three days - I'm turning into Mark Shenton! In truth, the prospect of Eugene O'Neill's long-winded gloom did not fill me with joy, but I did manage to avoid nodding off, unlike Richard E. Grant, although he could have been resting his eyes. The play creaks like the old coal barge it is set on, full of cliches like the hoary old sea dog, the woman "done wrong to" and even an anti-hero sent to rescue her from a life of prostitution. However, Rob Ashford has managed to create something captivating and even thrilling from these unpromising ingredients. Particular credit should go to Paul Wills who uses a stage that tilts to suggest a dockside bar, the deck of a barge at sea and a below-deck cabin. He is also responsible for a magnificent storm scene which sees Jude Law emerge from the depths. Despite some unintentionally amusing accents the central performances of Law, Ruth Wilson and David Hayman are excellent. Wilson has a face that conveys bruised hurt without her needing to say a word and from such close proximity there is a palpable sense of violence and danger in Law's Irish stoker. I still think O'Neill is hard work and possibly over-rated but Ashford's superb production came close to convincing me otherwise....
Cast
Ruth Wilson (Anna Christie)
Jude Law (Mat Burke)
Jenny Galloway (Marthy Owens)
David Hayman (Chris Christopherson)
Paul Brightwell
Robert Lonsdale
Henry Pettigrew
Michael Walters
Matt Wilman
Creative
Eugene O'Neill (Author)
Donmar Warehouse (Producer)
Rob Ashford (Director)
Paul Wills (Design)
Adam Cork (Music)
Mark Cork (Sound)
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