The New York herald., 1921-11-03
Drab Life of the
Sea in O'NeiWS
Anna Christie
New Drama Has Powerful,
Though Unpleasant Scenes
With Ocean as Background.

Another drama of the sea by Eugene
O'Neill was acted last night at the Van
derbilt Theatre under the aegis OF Ar
thur Hopkins. Anna Christie" is the
title Of the new play. which possesses
the fantastic character of the drama
lists work In having the sea the pro-
tagonist of the story.
The hoary Swedish ancient curses the
.srla ;levil'' to which he has been subject
.x.ring the long time that passed before
Ac became the captain of coal barge
with five men under him. He chants a
perpetual Ocean, du Ungeheur." To its
baleful influence he traces all the mis-
fortunes that have befallen him during
n life of drinking and needless selfish
ness.
On the other hand. the young Irish
mariner finds the sailors life the only
one for any man, open. free and clean.
He extols this existence, although he Is
nc more than a stoker, above any other
life in the world.
Against this conflict is posed the
daughter of the old bo'sun. She comes
back to him from the life on the land
70 which he had condemned her as a
child. chiefly to shift the care OF her to
others. The longing for the seas is In
her blood. She descends from line Of
men who followed the life from their
little village in Sweden.
Then, the land has been cruel to her,
She comes to seek her father not from
a happy farm in Wisconsin, but from
the hospital The house was raided.
Che could not stand the confinement OF
the jail. She had to be sent to the hos
pital to be cured The old man ships the
boozy partner of his joys and makes a
place for her on the barge. There all
might have been happy but for the in
reference Of the "old devil"
The hated sea casts up the sturdy
young sailor on the barge. In the most
postic scene that the play contains and
In phrases alternately tender and pow
erful, with an innate force that makes
every word eloquent, he wooes the girl
he finds on deck. Love never came
more swiftly to Montague and Capulet.
The effectiveness of this scene shows
how the public will In the theatre read
ily tolerate the convention Of love at
first sight. There Is rough dispute
tions marrying the girl. She seems to
settle It by telling the story of her life
to them. There Is agony for the father
and the lover in the disclosure. The
sailor talnss her word eventually that
she never loved anybody else before, and
the father finds his consolation in that
avowal. So the sudden love. as one
brings the happy ending.
Nothing in the four acts. which pcs
IN a New York saloon Of the past and on
the barge, Is worthy of Mr.. O'Neill's
reputation except the love scene in the
second act. 1t contains passages Of
vibrant and moving passion. The lam
guage of the rest Of the play probably
suits the ideals Of the characters. They
speak as men and women in such state
Of life probably would speak.
But the distinguishing mark Of the
O'Neill talent Is not on them. Four acts
of slang and worse, Of the most COM
monplace argot OF street and bagnio,
pail on the listener It is only In the
phrases allotted to the Irish sailor that
Mr.. O'Neill has departed from phono-
graphic realism. Other playwrights are
able to succeed at this game. yet none
can write the characteristic and racy
dialogue of Mr.. ONeill at his best.
There has been no attempt at any
idealization Of the types. The playwright
has been content to present them as they
are in their everyday estate. More is
expected from him than such literal
transfer fro mlife. The play. moreover,
1s too long. Mr. Hopkins has put II on
the stage In way to realize every one
of its virtues and build up the atmo-
sphere in which its faults would be
obscured.
Miss Pauline Lord played the heroine
with simplicity and some genuine pa
thos. George Marion made the old
Swede unrelievedly brutal Frank Shan
non told the Irish seaman's love with a
romantic fervor that the phrases in
which it is voiced could not fail to
arouse