Madison might not be next to an ocean, but that would be hard to tell if you happened to have recently stopped by the Overture Center's Playhouse.
The Madison Repertory Theatre has continued with its cycle of Eugene O'Neill plays, bringing a superlative production of the Pulitzer prize-winning ""Anna Christie"" to the stage. It is directed by the company's artistic director, Richard Corley, who illuminated O'Neill's work so well in the Rep's 2005 production of ""Moon for the Misbegotten.""
Luckily, for theatergoing audiences around Madison, Corley has managed yet again to breathe rich life into another American classic by O'Neill, as ""Anna Christie"" has easily become the highlight of a season that has already brought ""Bad Dates"" and ""Muskie Love.""
""Anna Christie"" is another one of Eugene O'Neill's plays that draws from his experience on the sea and in some of the rougher areas of New York City. The play opens at a ""Johnny-the-Priest's"" saloon with a crew of sailors drinking. Sailors and the ""divill sea"" [sic] are heavy factors in this play, which revolves around two sailors fighting over a woman's love.
The woman at the center of this triangle is Anna Christopherson, played by the recent UW-Madison MFA grad Carrie A. Coon, who steals the play's first scene, and then steps back into a competent performance. Her mother died when she was five and her father sent her away ""inland"" to St. Paul, Minn., away from the ""divill sea."" She stays away from the sea, but not from corruption, as we learn that she had left her abusive Minnesotan cousins and become a prostitute known as ""Anna Christie.""
It is this part of her past history that haunts the play, as she reunites with her father, Chris Christopherson, and the play begins.
Christopherson is played by the bear-like Craig Spidle who gives a performance that makes you realize why it is such a joy to see professional theater.
He is an old, able-bodied seaman who has never forgiven the sea for taking the lives of most of his family; he wants nothing more than to keep his daughter as far from it as possible. Of course, his intentions to keep Anna away from the ""divill sea"" becomes wrecked by nothing other than a shipwreck, which brings her into contact with Matt Burke, an Irish coal stoker.
Lea Coco plays Burke to near perfection and blends the part's hyper-masculinity with casanovian undertones, and it doesn't hurt that half the audience gasps when his shirt comes off. His charm and abs help win Anna over and creates the play's main conflict, as the last thing Chris wants is for his daughter to marry someone involved with that ""divill sea."" This of course all resolves itself with some plot twists and great writing by O'Neill.
It is also worth mentioning that this production marks the one year anniversary of the Madison Repertory Theatre's move into the Overture Center's Playhouse. In the past year, they have surely learned a thing or two, as this is the first production to make full use of the venue's features.
Jack Magaw's sturdy sets offer a fully-realized early twentieth-century bar in New York's harbor, which transforms to a dark night on a coal barge as the play progresses and a well-detailed captain's room. Ann M. Archbold has kept the lighting dark, which allows the audience to become swallowed by strong sets to point where they can almost smell the fish.
For the month of February, there is no need to go to Chicago to see extraordinary theater. Just walk up State Street and buy a ticket for the Playhouse. The Madison Repertory Theatre has managed to hit this nail on the head, and we can only hope this will continue in March when ""Talley's Folly"" opens.
