A new production of Arthur Miller's "A View From the Bridge" opens on Broadway after a celebrated run in London. NY1’s Roma Torre filed the following review.
Belgian director Ivo Van Hove thinks way outside the box. His stagings of classic dramas have given him the reputation of being quite a radical. His latest is a re-working of Arthur Miller's "A View From The Bridge." And this time he's working well inside a box, setting the entire play in a square perimeter without furniture props or even shoes.
It is a deconstruction of Miller’s naturalistic drama through the lens of a Greek tragedy. Without the physical trappings of daily life, we are focused entirely on Miller’s words and the moment-to-moment actions that lead to the inevitable downfall of his protagonist. The play begins with Alfieri, the lawyer/narrator character who takes the place of a foreshadowing Greek chorus.
Eddie Carbone, a longshoreman in Red Hook Brooklyn lives by a moral code that is pure and unyielding. He also has an unnatural attraction to his ward and niece Catherine. Eddie’s wife Beatrice is tolerant but increasingly unhappy. The arrival of two relatives from Italy - Marco and Rodolpho - set the tragic events in motion. Rodolpho, whose sexuality is questioned by Eddie, develops a relationship with Catherine. And Eddie becomes obsessed.
I have seen the play many times and yet there are moments in this production that took my breath away. Van Hove’s harrowing staging of the climactic final scenes will leave you emotionally drained. But I’m a little perplexed by some directorial choices - the bare feet, the inconsistent accents and the constant drumbeats - distracting touches that momentarily took me out of the here and now.
The cast imported from the London production is sensational. I must single out Mark Strong, as Eddie he's a towering tragedian destined like a mad tiger for the bloodbath that awaits.
The technical design deserves a bow as well, with its stark and muted lights on that glass-rimmed, grey-toned box of a set, enhancing Van Hove’s vision of the Miller classic – so intensely dark and ultimately illuminating.