UNARGUABLY one of the finest of Arthur Miller's works. The
extraordinary thing, though, watching this transferred production from
the Bristol Old Vic is how, despite its age (it was written 40 years
ago), it still has such pulling power. Part of the reason is that Miller
has cleverly reframed old-fashioned melo-drama to his own ends.
The other is the creation of a character like Eddie Carbone, who like
Willie Lomax in Salesman is a figure of such tragic proportions -- so
culpable yet so infinitely human -- he speaks to us on a mythic level.
Miller's sympathy for this giant, flawed bull of a man -- both victim
and oppressor -- is so total, and in Bernard Hill's slowly imploding
performance so terrifyingly convincing, we are, yet again swept away.
But it is also David Thacker we have to thank. One of those most
responsible for the Miller revival in this country, Thacker's team,
including regular designer Shelagh Keegan with her haunting waterfront
skyline and the music of Adrian Johnston, stay true to every nuance
whilst making us see it with entirely fresh eyes.
And what we come to see through Hill, the marvellous Charlotte
Cornwell (never better) as his rejected wife, Ivan Kaye and Joseph
Fiennes as their Italian relatives and Emer McCourt as Catherine, the
orphaned neice Eddie loves too well, is a play not just shockingly
relevant about illegal immigration but about the whole ethos of the
Italian male.
On top of Miller's liberal championing of the underdog, A View from
the Bridge comes to seem more and more an essay on homophobia and the
myth of macho.
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