Laying on the Irish? “Anna Christie” in Ireland

ABSTRACT Eugene O’Neill’s drama portraying a converted prostitute, an unlikely love story, and the redemption of a Swedish American father-daughter duo might seem quintessentially American. But “Anna Christie” is also a play that resonates significantly with Ireland. This is true not only because Anna’s love interest, Mat Burke, is one of O’Neill’s most memorable Irish sailors, or because Irish theater was formative to O’Neill’s writing but also because the production history of “Anna Christie” is connected to Irish identity and the struggle for independence. This means not only plot elements, such as Anna’s battles to survive her past traumas, but also the violent historical moments in which the play appeared: the 1921 partition in Ireland up through World War Two. This article charts a British touring production to Northern Ireland in 1924, as well as productions at the Gate Theatre (1929, 1943, and 1953) and a recent revival in New Ross, Ireland in 2023.