New-York tribune., 1921-11-03
The New PLAY
BY Percy Hammond
sAnna Christie," by the Acrid
MIR. O'Neill, Is Presented
at the Vanderbilt
THE CAST

First ionEshorenan. q q rnv,or
second longshoreman.. John Hanlev
Chris Christopherson. George Marion
stsrshy y, owen ..,........,. Eugenie Blair
Anna Cmr'atopherson. ..... Pauline Lord
va. burne. '.......... Frank shannon
Johnson ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS. Ole Anderson
Ii the gloomy trademark of Eugene
O'Neill's depressing product has kept
you hitherto away from his plays, dis
regard it for an hour or two and go
to see "Anna Christie" at the Wander
bilt.
| The promise thus suggested is not
that you will have a gay time in the OBJ
servation of that drama, but that it's
veracious picture OF some interesting
characters in interesting circumstances
will appeal to your Intelligence, while
its meaning" will not in the least ir-
ritate you. The story told by Mr..
O'Neill against his customary back
ground of ships and gruy waters, is
that of an ironic ex-street lady from
the curb market of ST. Paul, Mimi: her
father, weak and Scandinavian old
barge master, and her lover, wild
Irishman, handsome and poetic, a var-
rom stoker of minor steam vessels. The
essential footnote to the symbolism of
plays usually comes ct the last mo-
ment; and so the breathless morning
paper newsnnan was unable last night
to take advantage of its explanations.
However, by putting this and that to-
gether he assumes prccariously that
Mr.. ONeilPs emblematic predictions
selected the fog as representative
of his meanings, and that he desires
US to know that most of us wander
helplessly among such mists as exist
between here and heaven.
is there. you will ask as you leave
the Vanderbilt, better acting in New
York than that OF Miss Pauline Lord
as the weary ex-prostitute; or that of
Mr.. George Marion, as her pitiable old
parent? Perhaps there is, but you will
find none more satisfactory. That is
to say, that if you know anything
about such characters and their ways
or if you do not. you will be convinced
through the interpretations of Miss
Lord and MIR. Marion that they are
like" Miss Lord near the beginning
Of the play comes into the backroom
of a New York waterfront saloon,
fresh from the Minnesota lupanars,
and from that instant, through all the
various episodes, she makes no gesture
and utters no sound that you do not
believe. Mr.. Marion's characterization
is less compact. The nature of it per-
mits him to employ more spacious
methods. But, so far as know, it con-
tains no detail that is not honest and
Illuminating.
Let us look them over In the third
act, where, on Mr.. Marion's coal l-barge.
the Simeon Winthrop, at dock in Bos-
ton, Miss Lord, Mr.. Marion, and the
1rishman (Mr. Frank Shannon) come
to grips. The Irishman, who is q
pleasing carbon-copy of the Synge
type, has been rescued from wreck
a few days before by the Simeon Win
throp, and he has fallen in love with
the soiled daughter of his savior. Mr..
Marion hates this truculent fellow, and
when Mr.. Shannon announces unami-
ably that he is going to marry the lady.
ere the day is over, Mr. Marion pro-
duces knife and endeAvors to kill
him. He has neglected his daughter
for fifteen years, but now he wants her
for his own.
The young woman, who from her ex-
periences in the bagnios of the North
west, knows men and loathes them,
hereupon intervenes and asks her
father and her suitor to listen to her
Tor a minute or two while she tells
them some truths. She stills their
wordy clamor and then proceeds to in
form them that she has sold herself
many times in the ST. Paul flesh-marts;
and she wants to know what they are
going to do about it. 1t is a fine
speech with wallop in every syllable,
spoken in the racy lingo and fiat
monotonous tones Of the Minnesota
underworld, by desperate, fortnight,
forlorn and reluctant practitioner of
sin. Both men leave her, after tears
from her father and vicious recrimina-
tion and curses from her lover, to go
to Boston to get drunk.
There is presumably sunny ending
along about 1850. Parent and sweet
heart ship or the same vessel for
Cape Town, but with the indication
that the lady will be married to her
lrishman before he sails. Mr.. Arthur
Hopkins is the producer of the play,
and his Photographic methods are ad-
mirably suited to its nature and con-
tents.