A VIEW FROM THE BRIDGE - REVIEW OF 2024 PRODUCTION IN LONDON

Reviewed by James Karas 

Arthur Miller’s A View from the Bridge is a riveting play about love, jealousy, honour and betrayal. In the final scene the protagonist Eddie Carbone (Dominic West in a bravura performance), screams “I want my name back” because he has been shamed to core. He has been accused of betraying two relatives to the immigration authorities for their illegal status in the United States.

A view was written in 1956 at the height of the Hose Unamerican Activities Committee (HUAC hearings. The Senator Eugene McCarthy witch hunts, where people like Arthur Miller were subpoenaed by HUAC and asked to name friends or acquaintances who had Communist or leftist associations were one of the lowest points in American history.

Marco (Pierro Niel-Mee) and Rodolpho (Callum Scott Howells), two brothers related to the Carbones, jump ship and go to live with them where they are welcomed. But Catherine is attracted to the handsome Rodolpho and Eddie’s jealousy becomes explosive. When he realizes that the two are in love and want to marry, he goes berserk and finally reports the two brothers to the immigration police. The brothers are arrested and Marco delivers the ultimate insult to the traitor Eddie by spitting on him in public.

Miller structured the play like a Greek tragedy with a Chorus and traits that will inevitably lead to a terrible end. Alfieri (Martin Marquez) is the Chorus, a lawyer who introduces the play and comments on the events as well as being the voice of reason in a situation that is not susceptible to rational solutions. 

Dominc West in ‘A View from the Bridge’ (Johan Persson)

Lindsay Posner has directed the play before but there are certain areas where he is not completely successful. The relationship between Catherine and Eddie lacks the sexual electricity or tension that we must see to make Eddie’s motivation and treachery credible. Catherine does not exude the sexual attraction and tension needed to drive Eddie to commit the ultimate treachery.

The play achieves its potential in the last half hour or so when Eddie’s illicit attraction and jealousy take over and he desperately tries to prove that Rodolpho is a homosexual by forcibly kissing him on the lips. The inevitable forces of tragedy take over as Eddie’s demons overwhelm him and he destroys the lives of the illegal immigrants and destroys himself when he loses his honor, his self, his humanity and screams “I want me name back.”

Katie Fleetwood gives a fine performance as the decent wife of Eddie who sees and understands what is happening but can do very little about it. Marquez is good as the wise lawyer who sees all that is happening and knows that there is almost nothing that can be done to change the course of events. It is like Oedipus running away from his place of birth in order to avoid the prophecy that he will kill his father. He does the very thing on his way to Thebes when he accidentally meets his father and kills him. Marco as played by Niel-Mee is a decent man working hard to provide for his wife and children in Italy. He is driven beyond any endurance and spits on Eddie when he realizes what has happened. 

The play takes place in New York where they speak with an accent all their own and the Italian newcomers would have their own accent. I simply note that the London trained cast was not very successful in doing any kind of New York accent.

Miller gives directions for a single set that includes a desk for the lawyer Alfieri, a telephone booth, furniture, a ramp leading to the street and a stairway leading to the upstairs apartments. Posner and Set and Costume Designer Peter McKintosh us a single all-black set with a table and a few chairs and a dresser with a record player on the right. I could not see it very well from my seat. The back of the set shows three floors and when the light on the third-floor window is lit, I presume it means it is an outside seen. You can tell that from the context of the script. 

Paul Pyant, the lighting designer, could have been more helpful with the variety and focus of the lights and McKintosh could have provided another entrance for the non-family characters closes to the audience. All entrances and exits were done at the back and you had to rely on the context of the script as to who was coming from where.

These may be small points of disagreement about a play that has a huge impact almost seventy years after it premiered in a very different world.
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A View from the Bridge by Arthur Miller continues until August 3, 2024 at the Theatre Royal Haymarket, Haymarket, London. SW1Y 4HT  https://trh.co.uk/

James Karas is the Senior Editor, Culture of The Greek Press