Review Roundup: Jude Law Leads Donmar Warehouse's ANNA CHRISTIE

Exiled from her home by the Old Devil Sea to the inland plains, Anna Christie's life changed forever at just five years of age. Fifteen years later, she is reunited with the father who sent her away and sets sail in search of a new beginning. Eugene O'Neill's epic Pulitzer Award-winning play about love and forgiveness charts one woman's longing to forget the dark secrets of her past and hope for salvation.

The Donmar also undertook a year-long residency in the West End at the Wyndham's Theatre which led to a Broadway transfer of HAMLET. PARADE transferred to LA and PIAF is playing in Madrid following a successful engagement in Argentina. Most recently RED opened on Broadway to critical acclaim, winning six Tony awards at the 2010 ceremony.

Starring Jude Law, Ruth Wilson, Jenny Galloway and David Hayman, ANNA CHRISTIE will play through October 10 at the Donmar Warehouse in London. Find out what the critics thought here!

Charles Spencer, The Telegraph: Ruth Wilson brings both toughness and vulnerability to the role of the weary prostitute given a tantalising glimpse of a better life...Jude Law discovers humour, tenderness and sudden moments of intense physical and emotional violence in the role of the Irish stoker. Flawed it may be, but there is a raw vigour and humanity in Anna Christie that few other dramatists can match.

Michael Billington, The Guardian: Jude Law is the big draw in this outstanding revival of Eugene O'Neill's 1921 play. But Law's is only one in a triptych of fine performances, the others coming from Ruth Wilson and David Hayman, in a production by Rob Ashford that discovers the inner intensity of a play that can easily lapse into coarse melodrama.

Paul Taylor, The Independent: Law vibrantly animates the tension between this character's playfully self-amused exploitation of the cocky-stud stereotype and his violently bigoted sanctimony. Wilson is magnificent in every department as Anna. What is still truly bracing about O'Neill's portrayal of a former prostitute is that it succeeds in avoiding both of the cliches (the uncontaminated "heart of gold" angle and the terminally repentant heroine-with-a-past gambit) that come with this territory.

Henry Hitchings, The Evening Standard: Ruth Wilson is raw and luminous in the title role, and there is striking work from David Hayman, while Jude Law, looking far removed from the almost androgynous matinee idol of old, exudes a visceral toughness that may just shape an entirely new career path for him. Rob Ashford's deft production, with a clever design by Paul Wills, evokes the realities of nautical life. It's likely to haunt those who see it for a long time.

Mark Shenton, The Stage: At 38, [Jude Law's] latest return to his theatrical roots is another dazzling affirmation of his riveting abilities as an actor...Eugene O’Neill’s 1921 Pulitzer prize-winning play is full of melodramatic flourishes and heaving symbolism about “the old devil sea”. But Rob Ashford’s powerfully atmospheric production casts an eventually riveting spell, just as Anna does for both her father and her new admirer, who immediately become locked in a battle of possession over her.

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