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Anastasia
Guy Bolton, adapted from the play by Marcelle Maurette
Drama
8 male, 5 female
Interior Set
This crowd-pleasing classic was made into a film which featured an Oscar-winning performance by Ingrid Bergman who starred as "Anya", the last surviving daughter of Czar Nicholas II of Russia. Discovered as an amnesiac in a Berlin asylum by former Cossack 'prince' turned-taxi-driver Bounine, Anya is swept into a scheme to exploit the 'heritage' of 10 million pounds being held in trust for any surviving heirs of the Romanoff dynasty. As the conspiracy prospers, Anya is coached to success but for one last test: the Imperial Grand Empress is alive and her acceptance is essential. In a famous 'recognition scene' of breathless suspense, Anya meets her grandmother and must convince the dowager that she is the long-lost Royal Princess Anastasia.
"Superb."-The New York Times
"Theatre with a capital 'T'."-The New York Daily News
99 pages, Acting Edition
First published January 1, 1952
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
October 11, 2025
Anastasia, based on a play by Marcelle Maurette and Guy Bolton
8 out of 10
Notes and thoughts on other books are available at:
- https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list... and http://realini.blogspot.ro/
Anastasia is an excellent film.
It is included on The New York Times’ Best 1,000 Movies Ever Made list:
- http://www.listchallenges.com/new-yor...
The brilliant Ingrid Bergman has the role of Anastasia or Anna Koreff
And she won:
- The Academy Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role
- And the Golden Globe in the same category, obviously
Yul Brynner is equally impressive, even if he was not even nominated for the awards, as the General Sergei Bounine.
And I believe that the story is intriguing.
In fact, it seems that I am unable to accept the explanations connected with this film that purport to say that
- Anna Koreff was a fraud
Like other personages of this narrative, I have doubts…
- What if she really was Anastasia?
The story begins with a historical explanation, in which the audience is told about the tragic end of the czar and his family.
With the victory- which I see as such a tragedy- affecting my personal life and my family- of the Bolsheviks, the ruling family is arrested.
They are then taken all together, the barbarity of the communists had no compassion for children, and shot dead.
Given the clumsiness and the infamous inability of the Bolsheviks to accomplish tasks, it was said that there was a survivor…
- The Grand Duchess Anastasia
Bounine and other Russian exiles have been trying for some time to get a hold of the ten million pounds that were stashed in the Bank of England.
The ruling family had placed them there and a potential heir could claim them, therefore Anastasia would be invaluable.
Different impostors have showed up and one way or another they have been dismissed until Anna Koreff is found.
General Bounine is set about training and explaining the ways of the court, the manner of addressing different people.
Maybe he does such a great job that we can think of My Fair Lady, Pygmalion in which the hero makes a lady out of a flower girl.
Of course, the real conclusion might be the opposite, that there is a lady in each and every flower girl and education is only needed to bring that out.
Anna Koreff could be Anastasia after all.
She has wounds that could have been caused by the executioners or other accidents- perhaps an explosion.
In the story, the protagonist crosses into…Romania.
She even spends time in a hospital in Bucharest and a man comes to talk to her, claiming that he knows her.
This is of personal interest, for I live in Bucharest.
A climax is reached when Anna Koreff or/aka Anastasia has to meet the Dowager Empress Maria Fedorovna.
The latter is the ultimate authority and her rejection or stamp of approval would make the final difference.
A love story adds spice to the narrative, albeit it may not be the Prince charming that actually proves a little flawed and interested in material wealth and titles that gets to conquer, win the heart of…again:
- Anna Koreff or Anastasia…are they one and the same?
8 out of 10
Notes and thoughts on other books are available at:
- https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list... and http://realini.blogspot.ro/
Anastasia is an excellent film.
It is included on The New York Times’ Best 1,000 Movies Ever Made list:
- http://www.listchallenges.com/new-yor...
The brilliant Ingrid Bergman has the role of Anastasia or Anna Koreff
And she won:
- The Academy Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role
- And the Golden Globe in the same category, obviously
Yul Brynner is equally impressive, even if he was not even nominated for the awards, as the General Sergei Bounine.
And I believe that the story is intriguing.
In fact, it seems that I am unable to accept the explanations connected with this film that purport to say that
- Anna Koreff was a fraud
Like other personages of this narrative, I have doubts…
- What if she really was Anastasia?
The story begins with a historical explanation, in which the audience is told about the tragic end of the czar and his family.
With the victory- which I see as such a tragedy- affecting my personal life and my family- of the Bolsheviks, the ruling family is arrested.
They are then taken all together, the barbarity of the communists had no compassion for children, and shot dead.
Given the clumsiness and the infamous inability of the Bolsheviks to accomplish tasks, it was said that there was a survivor…
- The Grand Duchess Anastasia
Bounine and other Russian exiles have been trying for some time to get a hold of the ten million pounds that were stashed in the Bank of England.
The ruling family had placed them there and a potential heir could claim them, therefore Anastasia would be invaluable.
Different impostors have showed up and one way or another they have been dismissed until Anna Koreff is found.
General Bounine is set about training and explaining the ways of the court, the manner of addressing different people.
Maybe he does such a great job that we can think of My Fair Lady, Pygmalion in which the hero makes a lady out of a flower girl.
Of course, the real conclusion might be the opposite, that there is a lady in each and every flower girl and education is only needed to bring that out.
Anna Koreff could be Anastasia after all.
She has wounds that could have been caused by the executioners or other accidents- perhaps an explosion.
In the story, the protagonist crosses into…Romania.
She even spends time in a hospital in Bucharest and a man comes to talk to her, claiming that he knows her.
This is of personal interest, for I live in Bucharest.
A climax is reached when Anna Koreff or/aka Anastasia has to meet the Dowager Empress Maria Fedorovna.
The latter is the ultimate authority and her rejection or stamp of approval would make the final difference.
A love story adds spice to the narrative, albeit it may not be the Prince charming that actually proves a little flawed and interested in material wealth and titles that gets to conquer, win the heart of…again:
- Anna Koreff or Anastasia…are they one and the same?
September 1, 2017
Somehow, if it's even possible, I think I liked the play version of Anastasia, the very first version of the Anastasia story, even more than I liked any film adaptations of it—and the 1997 animated version is one of my all-time favorite movies.
But Marcelle Maurette's play—ittle known as it is despite its famous film counterparts—was perhaps even better written than the movies because of its ending, which was different than the films portrayed. The play was less nostalgic and less romantic than either of its film counterparts, which I enjoyed much more. Anastasia the character is more enigmatic throughout the entire play, and you question her sanity and all her wild stories of her past as Bounine and co. want you to, until she flips it around on you, the reader, and asks you who you believe?
Throughout the whole play, Anastasia is constantly being accused of being a liar and an actor, and it's hard to know whether she is or isn't. But in the end she turns it back on the Russian enterprise that is teaching her to be Anastasia and demands that they all, too, look at themselves and what they have been taught to believe. Anastasia is an actor, yes, but then aren't we all? We all have "tricks of remembrance" that serve our purposes in lives, and we all view our world as a stage. In the end, when Anastasia decides to live her own life, her own real life, as her grandmother says, she metaphorically is giving up the performing life; she has stopped performing for the committee, and she has stopped performing for you. It's really quite remarkable.
But Marcelle Maurette's play—ittle known as it is despite its famous film counterparts—was perhaps even better written than the movies because of its ending, which was different than the films portrayed. The play was less nostalgic and less romantic than either of its film counterparts, which I enjoyed much more. Anastasia the character is more enigmatic throughout the entire play, and you question her sanity and all her wild stories of her past as Bounine and co. want you to, until she flips it around on you, the reader, and asks you who you believe?
Throughout the whole play, Anastasia is constantly being accused of being a liar and an actor, and it's hard to know whether she is or isn't. But in the end she turns it back on the Russian enterprise that is teaching her to be Anastasia and demands that they all, too, look at themselves and what they have been taught to believe. Anastasia is an actor, yes, but then aren't we all? We all have "tricks of remembrance" that serve our purposes in lives, and we all view our world as a stage. In the end, when Anastasia decides to live her own life, her own real life, as her grandmother says, she metaphorically is giving up the performing life; she has stopped performing for the committee, and she has stopped performing for you. It's really quite remarkable.
October 24, 2023
yet another theatre read lol
June 29, 2025
I admit I didn't have a lot of expectations going in, what with my track record of reading (vs. watching) plays. This one seemed short enough, though, and I sort of hate to just throw out the tatty ex-library copy from the free library without at least giving an effort to see if anyone would read it if I patched it up a bit.
The good part is it starts with a summary for anyone who, like me, has never seen it performed, so I have at least a vague idea of what it's about, but the problem is the way I read means I read the dialogue and pretty much ignore everything else. That leaves out a LOT when it comes to plays, while in regular books, I can at least get the general idea of things when I skip "flavour" descriptions of backgrounds/characters' looks, etc. So, it's a little harder to follow plays than not.
What doesn't help is the quality of too many printed plays I've come across is poor: the ink is old, or made to LOOK old, and the pages are inconsistently faded (some are nice, others have faint text). This one also has quite a number of typos that threw me off:
Rated for benefit of the doubt, even though I'm tempted to give a strong dislike.
The good part is it starts with a summary for anyone who, like me, has never seen it performed, so I have at least a vague idea of what it's about, but the problem is the way I read means I read the dialogue and pretty much ignore everything else. That leaves out a LOT when it comes to plays, while in regular books, I can at least get the general idea of things when I skip "flavour" descriptions of backgrounds/characters' looks, etc. So, it's a little harder to follow plays than not.
What doesn't help is the quality of too many printed plays I've come across is poor: the ink is old, or made to LOOK old, and the pages are inconsistently faded (some are nice, others have faint text). This one also has quite a number of typos that threw me off:
"If they are really closing in on us, we had better divide up what's left and celar out of Berlin."I tried, honestly, but the more I read, the less I felt like reading. I think part of it is the format of plays—this is probably a perfectly good play, but it's like reading the screenplay of a movie instead, even a movie that's not really action-oriented. (There also wouldn't be typos in a performance... goofs, maybe, but hopefully fewer as the actors are more professional and have done the performance more.)
[CLEAR out, I assume, unless it's WEIRD slang]
"Not your Anna Broun?"
"Yes, the same Anan Broun I talked with that evening in the hospital at Dausdorf."
[Really??]
"It's not for nothing that those hospntal nuns had faith in her story."
[Sigh.]
Rated for benefit of the doubt, even though I'm tempted to give a strong dislike.
November 6, 2021
It was very different but also very similar to the movie version. There were some things from the movie that I got from the play. But I honestly loved this play and story. The dialogue was very interesting and I loved the writing
SPOILERS
How Anna left at the end because this isn't her life and not a puppet. She realized that she isn't what they want her to be like by asking the Prince if he would marry without wealth. I loved the empress in this story too! She was my favorite character who sassed Bounine with every chance she got. Her presence was filled with the grace and strength of a royal that made me love her even more. But seriously though how she kept insulting him and talking trash. It was beautiful to see especially how he acted to Anna. It was awful that they took advantage of women with amnesia and maybe had mental issues. I liked the depth on the Prince clinging to the past and my favorite scene was the confrontation with the Empress and Anna. Honestly in the beginning I was a bit shakey on this play but it truly was an amazing story that I loved.
SPOILERS
How Anna left at the end because this isn't her life and not a puppet. She realized that she isn't what they want her to be like by asking the Prince if he would marry without wealth. I loved the empress in this story too! She was my favorite character who sassed Bounine with every chance she got. Her presence was filled with the grace and strength of a royal that made me love her even more. But seriously though how she kept insulting him and talking trash. It was beautiful to see especially how he acted to Anna. It was awful that they took advantage of women with amnesia and maybe had mental issues. I liked the depth on the Prince clinging to the past and my favorite scene was the confrontation with the Empress and Anna. Honestly in the beginning I was a bit shakey on this play but it truly was an amazing story that I loved.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 17, 2018
It's interesting to look at this play, with its more mature angle, higher levels of moral ambiguity, and general dialogue style in comparison with virtually any other "Anastasia story" that followed its lead. The playwright never attempts to put her work out as truth or even to show favor to a particular side so much as to play with the concept of what a woman claiming to be Anastasia may have been like and why people might have a need to take advantage of her. That being said, the premise is kinda... not there?
February 11, 2018
I read this many times over the past several months because I was not only in the play (as Baroness Livenbaum), but I was also acting stage manager and then assistant stage manager, so I had to follow the book during every rehearsal and prompt the actors.
I enjoyed being in this show, but this script was very challenging due to the idiosyncratic syntax of the characters' lines and the old-fashioned, formal language.
I enjoyed being in this show, but this script was very challenging due to the idiosyncratic syntax of the characters' lines and the old-fashioned, formal language.
October 6, 2018
Rating: 5 / 5
Magical, beautiful, touching...
No words to describe this incredible masterpiece (yep, for me it is a masterpiece). So similar to other versions we're used to see (The 1956 movie, the 1997 animated movie, the 2017 Broadway musical, etc) and, and the same time, unique (just like all the other versions I've mentioned are unique on their own as well). I will NEVER get tired of reading about the Romanovs, specially about the Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolayevna Romanov.
Magical, beautiful, touching...
No words to describe this incredible masterpiece (yep, for me it is a masterpiece). So similar to other versions we're used to see (The 1956 movie, the 1997 animated movie, the 2017 Broadway musical, etc) and, and the same time, unique (just like all the other versions I've mentioned are unique on their own as well). I will NEVER get tired of reading about the Romanovs, specially about the Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolayevna Romanov.
June 16, 2025
5 out of 5 stars. This play is one of my favorite versions of this story. I love the maturity of this story and how a majority of the characters are morally grey. What surprised me most is that there wasn't any hint of romance like there was in the 1956 film adaptation. With how the play ends, i love how much agency Anna has as a character and the final choice she makes.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews