Eugene O’Neill Scenes for Two Actors: Anna Christie, Beyond the Horizon, and The Hairy Ape

Your scene-study teacher wants American realism, and someone says “do an O’Neill.” You and your partner know the names: the barge and the fog, the stoker in the zoo, the long day that turns into night. What you don’t know is which of those plays you can actually get for free, where a two-person scene sits inside them, or how to say a line like Ay tank Ay’m damn fool for bring you on voyage, Anna.

O’Neill is a great writer for two actors because his people say too much. They confess, boast, lie, and propose on short acquaintance, often in a dialect spelled out letter by letter. That gives you a lot to play, and a lot to learn word for word.

The short version: below are seven two-person scenes from Anna Christie, Beyond the Horizon, and The Hairy Ape, each with the line it starts on, the line it ends on, what each person wants, how the words split, and about how long it runs, with pairings for two women, two men, and a man and a woman. After the scenes, there’s a method for O’Neill’s respelled dialect and his long speeches. For another writer of heightened speech, see our Synge scenes for two actors.

Start with the plays you can read for free

Not all of O’Neill’s plays are free. US copyright depends on when a work was published, and the Duke Center for the Study of the Public Domain explains that works from 1930 entered the US public domain on January 1, 2026. So plays published in 1930 or earlier, like the three here, are free to read and copy in the US.

Project Gutenberg has free texts of Anna Christie, Beyond the Horizon, and The Hairy Ape, and lists each one as public domain in the USA. Every line quoted below is from those Gutenberg editions, with stage directions left out of the excerpts and an ellipsis (…) where an excerpt starts or stops partway through a speech. Gutenberg prints O’Neill’s dashes as double hyphens, and we’ve kept them. Work from the same edition as your partner, so a dropped word doesn’t cost you a cue.

The late masterpieces are another matter. Long Day’s Journey Into Night was first published by Yale University Press in 1956 and won the 1957 Pulitzer Prize. Published in 1956, it is not in the US public domain, so we won’t quote it. Find the Yale edition at a library or bookstore.

A note on the times. We counted the spoken words in each scene, stage directions out, and divided by 140 a minute. That’s a time on paper. O’Neill writes in a lot of pauses, so time your staged run, and trim further if you go over. If you’re entering a festival, check the clock: the International Thespian Excellence Awards acting rules define a duet as a performance for two players and say it should not exceed five minutes. Every full scene here runs longer, so each one gets a cut.

Anna Christie: three scenes on the waterfront

Anna Christie opened on Broadway at the Vanderbilt Theatre on November 2, 1921, with Pauline Lord as Anna, and won O’Neill the 1922 Pulitzer Prize, as the Wikipedia entry on the play notes. Anna, twenty, comes east from St. Paul to meet the father she hasn’t seen since she was a child. She is hiding her past; he is hiding that he still works on the sea.

Anna and Marthy: the back room (Act 1) — two women

Anna walks into a waterfront saloon and finds Marthy, the woman who has been living on her father’s barge. The stage directions say Marthy might be forty or fifty. It starts on Anna’s Gee, I needed that bad, all right, all right! after her first drink, and ends on Marthy’s Listen to me, kid--, cut off by Chris’s voice in the bar.

ANNA: Ain’t nothing wrong with me, is there? You’re looking hard enough.

MARTHY: Ain’t got to look much. I got your number the minute you stepped in the door.

ANNA: Ain’t you smart! Well, I got yours, too, without no trouble. You’re me forty years from now. That’s you!

Source: Eugene O’Neill, Anna Christie, Act 1, Project Gutenberg ebook 4025.

Anna wants a place to rest and wants to know, before she meets him, what kind of man her father is. Marthy wants to size up this girl, and then, once she knows who she is, to send her to Chris kindly and get out of the way. The full scene is about 1,350 words, roughly 9 and a half minutes, with Anna at about two thirds. For a cut, start on Marthy’s Well, he was lyin’. He ain’t. It runs about 610 words, under 4 and a half minutes, and keeps the news about the coal barge and Anna’s story of the farm.

Chris and Anna: the meeting (Act 1) — a man and a woman

Straight after, Chris comes in. The stage directions make him about fifty, so this is a strong scene for an older actor with a younger partner. It starts on his single word Anna! and ends when he goes to the bar for her port and she says to herself Gawd, I can’t stand this! I better beat it.

CHRIS: You know you vas awful pooty gel, Anna? Ay bet all men see you fall in love with you, py yiminy!

ANNA: Cut it! You talk same as they all do.

CHRIS: Ain’t no harm for your fader talk dat vay, Anna.

ANNA: No--course not. Only--it’s funny to see you and not remember nothing. You’re like--a stranger.

Source: Eugene O’Neill, Anna Christie, Act 1, Project Gutenberg ebook 4025.

Chris wants to keep his daughter, and to make her believe the barge is not the sea. Anna wants a rest without having to tell him anything true. It runs about 1,050 words, about 7 and a half minutes, Chris at about 60%. For five minutes or less, start on Anna’s I am. Tired to death.: about 540 words, under 4 minutes, with his offer of the barge and her decision to look at it. Play the compliment line carefully. Chris means it as a father; Anna hears every man she’s met.

Mat Burke and Anna: the fog (Act 2) — a man and a woman

Ten days later the barge sits in fog off Provincetown, and four shipwrecked men are hauled aboard. One is Mat Burke, an Irish stoker of about thirty. It starts on Anna’s Here you are. Here’s a drink for you. and runs to his isn’t it queer--, interrupted when Chris shouts Anna! In between he boasts, grabs her, gets knocked flat, apologizes, and proposes.

ANNA: All you got to do is find the girl.

BURKE: I have found her!

ANNA: You have? When? I thought you was saying--

BURKE: This night. If she’ll be having me. ‘Tis you I mean.

Source: Eugene O’Neill, Anna Christie, Act 2, Project Gutenberg ebook 4025.

Burke wants Anna, from the first look, and wants her to see him as a hero. Anna wants to keep him at arm’s length, and slowly, against her will, wants to be the decent girl he takes her for. The full scene is long, about 2,100 words or 15 minutes, and Burke has three quarters of it. For class, start on Anna’s What a terrible end! and run to the proposal: about 630 words, about 4 and a half minutes. Anna has fewer words, so her listening is the scene. Watch where she flinches when he talks about the women in the ports.

Beyond the Horizon: two brothers and the girl

Beyond the Horizon opened at the Morosco Theatre on February 3, 1920, and won the 1920 Pulitzer Prize for Drama; the Wikipedia entry on the play calls it his first full-length work to be staged. Both scenes come from Act 1, Scene 1, on a country road at sunset, the night before Robert, twenty-three, is to sail with his uncle for three years.

Robert and Andrew: the fence (Act 1, Scene 1) — two men

Andrew, twenty-seven, comes in from the field and finds his younger brother reading poetry on the fence. It starts on Andrew’s Hey there! and ends on his See you later, then. Neither of them says out loud that they both love Ruth.

ROBERT: …Suppose I told you that was the one and only reason for my going?

ANDREW: I should say you were nutty.

ROBERT: Don’t, Andy. I’m serious.

Source: Eugene O’Neill, Beyond the Horizon, Act 1, Scene 1, Project Gutenberg ebook 58569.

Andrew wants to send his brother off well, and not to show how hard it hits him. Robert wants to be understood, and nearly tells Andrew about Ruth before he stops himself. It’s about 1,300 words, around 9 minutes, with Andrew at almost 60%. Cut it by starting on Andrew’s Can’t be done. Farming ain’t your nature.: about 690 words, just under 5 minutes on paper, from the farm argument through the handshake. The ending is mostly what they don’t say. Don’t rush it.

Robert and Ruth: the first star (Act 1, Scene 1) — a man and a woman

Ruth, twenty, comes looking for Robert as soon as Andrew leaves. It starts on her Hello, Rob! and ends with the two of them running off to supper on his All right. We’ll run then. Come on! In those minutes he tells her why he’s leaving, then that he loves her, and she talks him into staying.

ROBERT: I love you. That’s the other reason.

RUTH: Oh, Rob!

Source: Eugene O’Neill, Beyond the Horizon, Act 1, Scene 1, Project Gutenberg ebook 58569.

Robert wants Ruth to feel what calls him over the hills. Ruth wants him to stay. Play her as someone who knows what she wants, because the stage directions give her an underlying, stubborn fixity of purpose. The full scene is about 1,650 words, almost 12 minutes, with Robert at 57%. For a short version, start on I love you. That’s the other reason.: about 575 words, about 4 minutes, split almost evenly. The cut loses his childhood speech, so if you’re the Robert, learn that one anyway as a monologue.

The Hairy Ape: a deck and a sidewalk

The Hairy Ape was first produced by the Provincetown Players in 1922. The Wikipedia entry on the play describes it as an expressionist play and says Louis Wolheim became famous as Yank. You can read every scene by part in our play library, which uses the Standard Ebooks text. The excerpts here are from the Gutenberg text; whichever you pick, both partners should use the same one.

Mildred and her Aunt: the promenade deck (Scene 2) — two women

Two days out, a steel heiress and her chaperone lie in deck chairs, hating each other in perfect sentences. It starts on Mildred’s How the black smoke swirls back against the sky! Is it not beautiful? and ends on And here he comes, I think. as the Second Engineer arrives to take her down to the stokehole.

AUNT: Yes, you are a natural born ghoul. You are even getting to look like one, my dear.

MILDRED: I detest you, Aunt. Do you know what you remind me of? Of a cold pork pudding against a background of linoleum tablecloth in the kitchen of a--but the possibilities are wearisome.

Source: Eugene O’Neill, The Hairy Ape, Scene 2, Project Gutenberg ebook 4015.

Mildred wants a thrill, and for one speech she wants to be sincere. The Aunt wants to puncture every pose. It’s about 780 words, a little over 5 and a half minutes, Mildred at 62%. To land under five, start on the Aunt’s Merci for your candor.: about 650 words, under 5 minutes on paper. The scene after the Engineer exits, ending in the slap, is only about 75 words, so you can add it as a coda if your teacher lets someone read his lines.

Yank and Long: Fifth Avenue (Scene 5) — two men

Three weeks later, Long, a stoker whose speech is written in a London dialect, brings Yank up Fifth Avenue on a Sunday morning to show him the class he should be angry at. It starts on Long’s Well, ‘ere we are. and ends on Yank’s De punch, dat’s me every time, see! as the crowd comes out of church.

LONG: Well, ‘ere we are. Fif’ Avenoo. This ‘ere’s their bleedin’ private lane, as yer might say. We’re trespassers ‘ere. Proletarians keep orf the grass!

YANK: I don’t see no grass, yuh boob. Clean, ain’t it? Yuh could eat a fried egg offen it.…

Source: Eugene O’Neill, The Hairy Ape, Scene 5, Project Gutenberg ebook 4015.

Long wants to turn Yank’s rage into politics. Yank wants revenge on one woman and can’t stand being lectured. It’s about 890 words, about 6 and a half minutes, Yank at 59%. For a cut, start on Yank’s Aw, hell! I don’t see noone, see--like her.: about 620 words, under 4 and a half minutes, split almost evenly. Two different dialects, Yank’s New York and Long’s London, in one short scene make it a strong pick for two men.

Learn O’Neill’s dialect from a clean copy

O’Neill mostly spells the sound out. Chris says Ay, dat, vas, and py yiminy. Yank says choich and loined. Long drops his h’s: ‘ere, ‘er clarss. Burke’s Irish is partly spelling (divil, dacent, wan) and partly grammar: Is it dreaming I am? and Let you sit down, now, Miss.

That mix is exactly the case our guide on learning lines written in dialect covers: respelled sound can go back to ordinary spelling, but dialect grammar must stay. So make a clean copy before you memorize. For Chris, Ay tank becomes I think on paper, and you put the sound back when you speak. For Burke, Is it dreaming I am? stays as it is, because the word order is the line. Mark the respelled words on a second copy, and say every line in the accent from the first day.

Test yourself from first letters made from the clean copy, not the respelled one. Here is a Chris line from the Act 1 meeting, Ay love your mo’der too much for ever do dat, Anna., as cues:

I l y m t m f e d t, A.

If you can say it from that, in Chris’s sound, you have it. Our free first-letter memorizer turns any speech into cues like these, and our other free tools help with the rest.

Handle the long speeches and the stage directions

O’Neill gives his actors long arias. Robert’s childhood speech about the window, starting Those were the only happy moments of my life then, is about 230 words on its own. Mildred’s speech about her grandfather’s blast furnaces is about 170, and Chris’s speech about never sailing for Sweden is about 140. Each one is a story, so learn it as a story first.

• Use his dashes as your map. O’Neill breaks sentences with dashes where the thought turns: Ay sign on oder ships--go South America, go Australia, go China, go every port all over world many times--but Ay never go aboard ship sail for Sveden. Learn the speech one dash-to-dash phrase at a time, then chain the phrases out loud.
• Find the list inside the speech. That same sentence hides a list of places. Lists are where the order slips, so learn them as a set, in order.
• Read the stage directions once, then cross them out. O’Neill writes a mood into nearly every speech, like [Hurt--humbly.] or (with feeling). Take them as clues to what the character wants, not as instructions to show a feeling. Your learning copy should hold only the words you say.
• Learn your cue as well as your line. Your partner’s speeches are long too. Know the last few words of each one, so you can listen to the whole speech without hunting for your entrance.

Then put it together with your partner’s voice. In Offbook, upload the scene from the Gutenberg text and pick your part, and realistic voices read the other one and wait for you to say your line. As the video below shows, you can hide your lines while your partner’s stay visible, or switch on first-letter cues on the way, then hide the entire script for a final run. If the voice stumbles over dat vay, edit your partner’s lines into the clean copy in the scene editor, and slow their speed down while you learn Burke’s or Chris’s long speeches.

If you want a free warm-up first, our run lines online tool rehearses classic scenes and waits for your line, with no account. For more scenes, browse our acting scripts page, and for solo speeches, our monologues library.

Questions actors ask

Is there an Anna Christie scene for a man and a woman?

Two. Chris and Anna’s first meeting in Act 1 suits an older man and a younger woman, and the Act 2 fog scene with Mat Burke suits two actors of about twenty and thirty. The fog scene is the more dramatic, but Burke has most of the words, so the Anna needs to be a strong listener.

Which O’Neill plays are in the public domain?

In the US, works published in 1930 or earlier are public domain as of 2026, which takes in his early plays. Project Gutenberg lists Anna Christie, Beyond the Horizon, and The Hairy Ape as public domain in the USA. Later plays, including Long Day’s Journey Into Night, are not. Outside the US, check your local rules, and for a public performance, ask your school or theater how they handle rights.

Should I do the accent or just say the spelling?

Ask your teacher first. O’Neill’s spelling is a hint at the sound, not a phonetic script, so learn the words from a clean copy and add the sound you’ve chosen. Our guide to learning an accent for acting has a step-by-step method.

Can I rehearse an O’Neill scene without my partner?

Yes. Rehearse on your laptop with the full script on a big screen, and Offbook’s voices read your partner’s lines and wait for yours. You can also listen to your scenes on your phone anywhere, which helps the rhythm of a long speech sink in.