by Arthur Miller
Arthur Miller’s
classic play View from the Bridge staring Ken Stott as Eddie, has been a
sell-out success, showing that serious theatre can get an audience on the West
End. We managed to catch up with it on a Saturday afternoon, though I have to
say, we are not joining the ranks of the over-enthusiastic 5 Star brigade.
The action takes place largely within the family rooms of the Brooklyn tenement. Eddie, a passionate, loyal, hard-working longshore man has invited illegal immigrants from his wife’s home town in Sicily to sleep on his floor while they sort themselves out. There is danger for all as the immigration authorities encourage tip-offs in an attempt to find and deport the desperate young Europeans who are flocking to the state sin post war years. These submarines have to shut up and put up, but if they survive, they can send enough money home to keep their families from starving.
But the stakes are high. These are not easy times.
Eddie's complex relationships are rapidly laid bare. His passionless marriage with Beatrice (Mary Mastrantonio) is compared to his rather too passionate relationship with his adopted daughter Catherine (Hayley Atwell) and his ferocious jealously as she and one of the immigrants, the fey Rodolpho is immediately destructive. Eddie's fury knows no bounds; betrayal is unthinkable and inevitable. He cannot do anything but destroy everything he loves.
This is a Shakespearean tragedy, narrated by a lawyer. There is no doubt how it will end, and it was therefore rather strange that the emotional impact was not as great a expected. I could not criticise any of the leads, yet the play was less than the sum of its parts. It could be that the cuts were too savage or ill-advised, for at just two and a quarter hours with interval, it was surely severely cut. Rather than suffering as the inevitable tragedy overtakes us, it seemed to be suddenly done and dusted. I have also seen a criticism that while the 1983 National version was set on the street in the community, this production was a domestic setting, all behind closed doors.
No criticism, however, for Ken Stott who was completely brilliant. He Eddie had everything you wished, from his physical presence, his emotional vulnerability and bewilderment at what he was forced to do. This was one of the great performances.
