Tragic Comedy
New York 1921
After years of neglect and abuse, first as a foster child and then as a prostitute, Anna Christie arrives in the brutal New York docks of the twenties to look for her father, Chris Christopherson, an old seaman. The two are reunited, and despite Anna's resentment and Christopherson's bad conscience, they quickly come to a prickly, but tender regard for one another. Anna's worldly past is clear to others but she is careful to keep her father ignorant of it. To help Anna's recovery from the illness which drove her back to him, Christopherson moves her into the cabin of the coastal barge of which he is now captain.
For Anna, life on the coastal waters brings a sense of cleansing and rebirth, and with it a wry tolerance of Christopherson's endless tirades against 'Dat ole davil Sea.' Anchored in the outer harbour of Provincetown, Mass. they save the lives of four sailors adrift from the wreck of their ship. Anna falls in love with one of the survivors, Mat Burke, a huge roistering Irishman. As Mat and she become closer, Christopherson rails ever more violently against the sailors and the sea. He is relieved when Anna refuses Mat's offer of marriage, only to be thrust into despair when she reveals to both men that her refusal arises from the shame of having been a prostitute. In a tempestuous final act, Mat comes to the barge to kill Anna but finally, and with ambivalence, offers to marry her.
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