THEATER
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Q&A
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A health expert turned filmmaker makes his East Coast premiere
CULTURE VULTURE
• Culture Vulture

Anna Christie
Written by Eugene O’Neill
Directed by Cailin Heffernan
Center Stage/NY
48 West 21th Street, 4th Floor
212-501-4069

Review by Katharine Critchlow

In the humble setting of Center Stage’s fourth floor theater, Cailin Heffernan directs an elegant production of Eugene O’Neill’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play, Anna Christie. When barge captain Chris Christopherson receives word that his daughter Anna is coming to visit after 20 years on her own, he kicks out his live-in lover, curbs his drinking and cleans up his act for the child he assumes has turned into a refined young lady. Instead, he finds a hardened and sad woman aged beyond her years by neglect, exploitation, and ultimately prostitution.

Irish toast: Dusten J. Cormack, Jennifer Larkin and Aidan Redmond drink to 'dat old devil sea in Eugene O'Neill's Pulitzer Prize-winning classic Anna Christie.

Chris had left Anna to be raised by relatives on a farm, hoping to shelter her from his turbulent life on what he calls "dat old devil sea." Unfortunately, Anna winds up corrupted by more dangerous evils on land. Though she conceals her past from her father, as they spend more time together, Anna and Chris realize they are very much alike. They both prefer whiskey to ginger ale, and they are both inextricably drawn to the foggy whirlwind of the sea. They are also both very stubborn, as they discover when Mat Burke, a handsome Irish coal stoker, offers Anna a chance at love and redemption to the dismay of her father.

Despite being 84 years old, the provocative text of Anna Christie still resonates with the talented cast at the Boomerang Theatre who breathes new power into O’Neill’s words. When she first enters the play, Jennifer Larkin is cold and detached as Anna, but what seems to be aloofness is actually the skill of a trained actress – she builds to an emotional climax slowly as she reveals Anna’s vulnerability to the audience, tearing off her emotional armor piece by piece. Aidan Redmond smolders as Mat, with the angry good looks and intensity of a young Clive Owen. At times the actor makes us worry that he really is going to throw the other actors across the stage. Dunsten J. Cormack is a touching and pitiful Chris, as he comes to terms with the wrong he has done in abandoning Anna, and tries to fix it. It is a pleasure to watch these fine actors perform a classic play, and at times we really do feel like we're on a barge off the coast of Boston. The theater's fog machine also helps.