“…all part of [Deane’s] remarkable performance of the inner turmoil with which Anna struggles”
September 9-24, 2023 | Eugene O’Neill Foundation National Historic Site
at the Eugene O’Neill Foundation’s 2023 Season at Tao House
“Anna Christie” leads the season’s Having Her Say theme
and Adrian Deane responds to Pauline Lord, the originating Broadway actor of the title character
A story of a Protagonist ‘searching for perhaps the greatest thing someone can search for … herself’
https://www.danvillesanramon.com/ae/2023/09/01/eugene-oneill-festival-to-culminate-with-anna-christie/
Charles Woodson Parker (Chris Christopherson), Adrian Deane (Anna Christie), and Kyle Goldman (Mat Burke) in the Eugene O’Neill Festival production of “Anna Christie.” Photo by Eric Fraisher Hayes. (2023)
The following images are courtesy of the Eugene O’Neill Foundation, photographed by Eric Frayser Hayes.
Quotes are performance reviews by J. Chris Westgate of the Danville production before remounting in New Ross, Ireland for the International Eugene O’Neill Festival:
https://scholarlypublishingcollective.org/psup/eugene-oneill/article/45/2/231/390521/Anna-Christie
“Adrian Deane’s performance of Anna was integral to the production’s accomplishment."
Kyle Goldman, Charles Woodson Parker, and Adrian Deane, 2023
“Deane’s performance of an Anna torn between misandry and romance, self-loathing and believing in the possibility of change was compelling, nowhere better than in Anna’s “Nobody owns me” scene. When describing how Chris and Mat were treating her, Deane was angry and shouting; when remembering her cousin from Minnesota, she held her stomach and looked sickened; and when describing the brothel, she spoke in almost a whisper and appeared overwhelmed—all part of her remarkable performance of the inner turmoil with which Anna struggles.”
Adrian Deane and Charles Woodson Parker, 2023
While Greta Garbo’s entrance in the 1930 film adaptation of “Anna Christie” conveyed defiance mingled with weariness, Deane’s highlighted Anna’s apprehension and vulnerability.
Throughout the early scenes, Deane revealed the physical and psychological trauma that Anna endured before arriving in New York City, her need for solace, and her fear that she will not find it with the father who left her years earlier.
Adrian Deane and Kyle Goldman, 2023
As the play transitioned to Chris’s coal barge, Anna appeared on a raised platform on the northeast side of the Old Barn, staring into the distance and describing how the sea and fog made her feel clean—a key moment in O’Neill’s play often underplayed in productions. Not in Hayes’s “Anna Christie.” On the water, Deane’s Anna becomes more open, freer in her movements, and more hopeful while interacting with her father, including her enthusiasm for coiling the ropes or listening to her family’s history with the sea.
Adrian Deane, 2023
New Ross International O’Neill Festival Press:
https://www.independent.ie/regionals/wexford/new-ross-news/new-ross-theatre-festival-to-host-pulitzer-prize-winning-play/a270325636.html
ENGAGEMENT LETTER for the Danville Production:
https://eugeneoneill.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/AC-Engagement-Guide-2023.pdf