"Anna Christie" dir. by Tamiya Kuriyama (review)

Otemachi, the area of Tokyo adjacent to the Imperial Palace, is the economic hub of Japan and home to Yomiuri Otemachi Hall. Although it is hard to imagine now, Edo Castle, from which the palace was built, originally graced a cape overlooking the Tokyo Bay, while the large area around the castle, including Otemachi, was underwater. This makes the venue compellingly apt for the first Japanese production of O'Neill's sea play "Anna Christie."

Following Long Day's Journey Into Night(2000), Mourning Becomes Electra(2004), and The Iceman Cometh(2007), "Anna Christie"is the fourth O'Neill play for award-winning director Tamiya Kuriyama. Ryoko Shinohara, who played Anna, is a singer and actress who has starred in a variety of films and television dramas. Because this was her first theatrical performance in thirteen years, the production was extensively advertised in the media. Specially made T-shirts, tote bags, and postcards were on sale in the lobby, along with DVDs of Greta Garbo's 1930 film. Who would have imagined that a production of an O'Neill play could be such a glamorous theatrical event in far-eastern Asia?

A summary of my program notes will provide critical context. That Anna is initially allowed only the options of being a nurse or a prostitute reflects two traditional female figures in the West: the Mary Magdalene and the Virgin Mary. The story of Mary Magdalene as a prostitute turned celibate penitent was concocted by the church fathers and has long been embraced by patriarchal culture; elsewhere, Mary Magdalene is the Virgin's eroticized counterpart or, even, corrective. Depicting a "fallen woman" as the heroine in " Anna Christie," O'Neill likewise attempts to (re-)create a female figure who embraces a sexuality that patriarchy has distorted and degraded. Notably, he implies Anna's association with the sea-born goddess Aphrodite by assigning her a striking beauty, with golden hair and a commanding physique with "a power of strength … in them two fine arms." O'Neill thus emphasizes the sea as the feminine realm, as opposed to the masculine terrestrial world. This is why Anna is immediately healed, purified, and given a sense of home and identity at sea. Mat Burke's reference to Anna as a "mermaid" upon their first meeting also suggests her mythical dimension, since the mermaid myth has its Western origin in the Greek goddess.

At rise, an unbleached scrim reminiscent of a ship's sail invites the audience into the play's maritime world. The atmosphere of a waterfront bar is quickly created by Chris (Taka Takao), wearing a navy-blue jacket in his jovial drunkenness; "Johnny-the-Priest" (Yasuyoshi Hara); the bartender Larry (Kohei Fukuyama); and two longshoremen (Kazuya Tawara and Kengo Yoshida). Fukuyama is noteworthy for conveying a cool handsomeness as well as the friendly demeanor associated with his business. Several slapstick actions punctuate the opening exchanges between Chris and Marthy (Ryoko Tateishi). For example, when Chris angrily responds to Larry's teasing by pounding the table, Marthy loudly slaps his bald head. A little later, when Chris struggles to persuade Marthy to leave his barge so that he may accommodate Anna, she roughly pokes the mumbling old sailor for encouragement, causing him to spout beer toward the audience. Marthy's light-hearted, indeed comical, acceptance of a new hardship establishes a contrast with Anna, who will enter momentarily, in a state of dejection. Takao has to this point played the stumbling and awkwardly singing Chris as a jovial fellow, but his voice will become commanding in some of his later exchanges with Anna. This allows the audience to appreciate Anna's resentment toward her father.

From the moment of her delivery of Anna's famous first line, "Gimme a whiskey—ginger ale on the side. And don't be stingy, baby," Shinohara entices the audience with her clear and deep voice, filled with fatigue, disappointment, and a host of other feelings. It is immediately clear that Shinohara's Anna will be a preeminently physical creature...