The Stage

A View from the Bridge

Published Friday 6 February 2009 at 11:45 by Aleks Sierz

The title of Arthur Miller’s classic 1956 play refers to New York’s Brooklyn Bridge, from which the play’s lawyer narrator, Alfieri, watches the unfolding of a private tragedy in the context of the city’s Italian community. Docker Eddie Carbone’s possessive affection for Catherine, the niece that he and his wife Beatrice have brought up, is threatened when she falls in love with Rodolpho, an illegal immigrant who has arrived in American with his brother Marco. To keep the teenagers apart, Eddie informs on Rodolpho - with tragic results.

Miller’s main theme is the American Dream, and Eddie’s unconscious attraction to Catherine is beautifully balanced by his conscious struggle to comprehend what is right and what is wrong in modern society. Although the two outsiders, the Sicillians Rodolpho and Marco, come from a more traditional way of life, Rodolpho’s youth and energy represent the emerging fifties consumer culture.

Lindsay Posner’s superb revival is excellently cast and beautifully paced. On Christopher Oram’s hyper-realist set, which shows both Eddie’s grotty apartment and the street scene outside, Ken Stott delivers a thrilling performance as Miller’s great anti-hero. With his bull neck and shoulders hunched under the weight of his suffering, Stott is like a smoldering volcano whose emotional eruptions come straight from the core.

With his blazing face and terrifyingly explosive outbursts, Stott’s dominant presence provokes a good match in Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio’s Beatrice, whose passionate intelligence is allied to her innate good sense. Less convincing is Hayley Atwell’s naive Catherine, although the rest of the cast, led by Allan Corduner as Alfieri and Harry Lloyd as Rodolpho, are excellent in support.

With its clear storytelling, vivid stage pictures and memorable performances, this is surely the best straight drama in the West End today.