Need a director who can breathe new life into an old American play?
Paging Dr. Edmiston.
Over the course of the 20 years he’s been involved with the Boston theater scene, Scott Edmiston has developed a reputation for resuscitating classic dramas. And “Anna Christie” needs a little CPR.
There’s no disputing the play’s bona fides. Playwright Eugene O’Neill won the Pulitzer Prize for “Anna Christie” in 1922. But now – almost 100 years later – the play is viewed more as part of the backstory to O’Neill’s three late, great masterpieces, “The Iceman Cometh,” “Long Day’s Journey into Night” and “A Moon for the Misbegotten.”
Edmiston takes the play from supporting player to leading role, when he stages “Anna Christie,” April 6 to May 6, for the Lyric Stage Company of Boston.
“The Lyric has really taken a leadership role when it comes to staging classic American plays from the 20th century,” says Edmiston, who directed “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” and “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof” for the theater company. “The trick is to present them not as museum pieces, but to approach them in a fresh way.”
Although O’Neill was still maturing as a writer when he wrote “Anna Christie,” the play features classic O’Neill characters – they drink too much, fight too often and love too hard.
The story centers on the relationship between a grizzled sea captain named Chris and his daughter, Anna. The young woman has lived a hard life. Sexually assaulted when she was younger, she turned to a life of prostitution. But now she returns to her father in an effort to make a new start, a decision that’s complicated by the fact that she falls for a sailor named Mat.
Conventional wisdom says that in order to make “Anna Christie” work for a modern audience, you have to ramp up the sex: a steamy relationship between Anna and Mat can distract audiences from the play’s creakier plot points.
But Edmiston takes a less jaded view. He thinks the play stands on its own merits, and he believes that the obsession with sexual tension in “Anna Christie” is simply the result of a 1993 revival of the play in which actors Natasha Richardson and Liam Neeson fell in love while playing the roles of Anna and Mat.
“You had these two great actors and gorgeous creatures falling in love on stage,” Edmiston says with a laugh. “Going to see the play became kind of an event.”
Edmiston’s approach to the play is more than skin deep. He sees the chance to root around in a lot of well-built emotional baggage.
“Eugene O’Neill was my first creative hero when I was 17,” says Edmiston, who lives in Waltham. “He opened my mind to what theater can be. Tennessee Williams is often called the poet of American theater; I think of O’Neill as the novelist of American theater. There’s a grandeur to his writing. He has an uncompromising viewpoint, and an interest in exploring the darkness of the human soul. He understands the complexity of human relationships – how love and hate and fear and regret and guilt can all get tangled up in one moment.”
It’s a style of writing that requires the right performers. And after two decades of working with Boston actors, Edmiston can’t read a play without casting it in his head. When Spiro Veloudos, producing artistic director of the Lyric, suggested Johnny Lee Davenport for the role of Chris, Edmiston’s response was immediate.
“Sold,” he said. “Done.”
Edmiston and Davenport worked together on “Water by the Spoonful,” and the director is a fan.
“Johnny Lee is one of the great talents of our region, and a gentleman of the theater,” says Edmiston. “He can bring both danger and vulnerability to the stage. O’Neill requires actors to capture those kinds of contradictions, and I knew Johnny Lee would be fantastic at it.”
“Anna Christie” also provides a multifaceted role for a female actor. In this production, that’s Lindsey McWhorter.
Edmiston says that many of the plays that were written in this era “have 25 men in them” and not much to offer actresses, but “Anna is a female protagonist who’s very strong. O’Neill often writes strong women who are liberated beyond their time period. ‘Anna Christie’ was written one year after women won the right to vote. She is not decorative. She is nuanced and strong in a way that feels very contemporary.”
Edmiston is also drawn to the play because it’s set in Boston and Provincetown, and “it feels very New England-y.” His affection for that aspect of the play may be surprising, since he was born and raised in Pennsylvania. But Edmiston says that when he arrived in Boston in the late-1990s, he realized, “Oh, this is where I belong.”
O’Neill, born in New York but buried in Boston, may have felt the same way. The playwright is a local legend in Provincetown, where he spent one of the most productive periods of his life. It’s one of the reasons that Edmiston finds a certain mystique in the Cape Cod town.
But if you want to get closer to your teen idol, then direct one of his plays. As Edmiston digs into “Anna Christie,” he’s reminded that O’Neill offers juicy challenges for theater artists.
“O’Neill was interested in extreme emotional states,” says Edmiston. “For actors, that’s fun to play, and for directors, it’s fun to stage.”
“Anna Christie” plays April 6 to May 6 at the Lyric Stage Company of Boston. Tickets start at $25. Call 617-585-5678, or visit lyricstage.com