Phoebe Fox, Mark Strong and Nicola Walker. Photo: Jan Versweyveld
Reviewed by
James Karas
The Young Vic production of Arthur Miller’s A
View from the Bridge has reached Canada by way of a live transmission
from England. It is a breathtaking production despite some sloppy camera work.
Director Ivo van Hove has pared the play to its bare
essentials and produced a drama that is akin to Greek tragedy.
The play takes place in Brooklyn
in the 1950s and is set on a street and the living room-dining room of Eddie
Carbone, a longshoreman, originally from Italy. 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.
Van Hove and designer Jan
Versweyveld have done away with all of that and reduced the playing area to a
small square on the stage. There is a door at the back and there are no props
except for a chair that is brought in as an essential item.
When the curtain goes up, we see
two men taking a shower. They dry themselves off as the lawyer Alfieri (Michael
Gould), (he is the chorus in the play), enters and gives us some background
information about that part of Brooklyn. He will stay on stage throughout the
performance (unless he disappears and we in the movie theatre simply do not see
it).
In the small, brightly lit playing
area we will see Eddie Carbone (Mark Strong) greeted by his young niece
Catherine (Phoebe Fox) who jumps in his arms and wraps her lags around his
waist. She is agile, pretty and curious about men. Eddie is clearly attracted
to her but his attraction is more illicit passion than an uncle’s protective
attitude.
Rodolfo (Luke Norris) and Marco
(Emun Elliott), two cousins, arrive from Italy and stay illegally working as
longshoremen to pay off their debt to the people who “fixed” everything for
them.
Catherine falls in love with
Rodolfo and Eddie is driven to distraction with subconscious jealousy and anger
against Rodolfo. His furor leads him to betray Rodolfo and Marco to the
immigration authorities so that they can be deported.
That is ultimate treachery and when
Marco finds out he spits on Eddie. Eddie becomes not just a social pariah but
is in fact dehumanized. “I want my name
back” he screams. The original context for the play was Senator Joseph McCarthy
witch-hunts by the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC). Miller
condemned those who appeared before the committee and betrayed their friends by
naming names.
Strong gives a powerful
performance as Eddie. He has piercing eyes that glow with seething passion,
anger and hatred. In the end he is left with nothing as he tries to regain some
self-respect.
Fox is a waif of a girl,
innocent, curious, attractive and alluring. She falls in love easily with the handsome
and just as innocent Rodolfo of Luke Norris.
Eddie’s wife Beatrice (Nicola
Walker) is caught in the middle between Eddie who ignores her sexually but
demands obedience and “respect” and the realization of her husband’s attraction
to Catherine. Walker gives a sympathetic portrayal of the distraught woman.
The play moves towards the
inescapable conclusion with the inevitability of Greek tragedy which it consciously
emulates. Van Hove eschews the violence of the final scene by choreographing
the bloody encounter of the characters. All of them end up bunched together as
blood starts dripping on them. This is a return to the tableau of the opening
scene. The characters slowly fall to the ground and we see Beatrice grasping Eddie’s
dead body.
Van Hove has reimagined Miller’s
play and done away with the Mediterranean emotionalism and has given a strikingly
fresh approach that is a triumph of directing.
Now for the bad news. There are
always issues when transmitting a theatre production to a movie house. Camera
angles and shots have to be considered, close-ups and long shots must be chosen
judiciously and more. The transmission of A View was simply sloppy. We could
be stuck watching someone’s back; looking at the person spoken to instead of
the speaker and some basic errors that should not be made. Let’s just say that
there is room for improvement.
_____
A View from the Bridge by
Arthur Miller was transmitted from Wyndham;s Theatre, London, England in
production by the Young Vic on March 26, 2015 at the Cineplex VIP
Don Mills Shops at Don Mills, 12 Marie Labatte Road, Toronto Ontario M3C 0H9 and
other theatres. It will be shown again on May 2, 2015 at select theatres.. For
more information: www.cineplex.com/events
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