A View from the Bridge at Glasgow Tron Theatre – review

A View from the Bridge is surely Arthur Miller’s most tightly constructed play. Nowhere else do you get quite so acutely that stomach-wrenching sense of impending doom that seems to hover around the language right from the beginning. That’s partly thanks to the choric utterances of the lawyer, Alfieri, but it’s also in the careful way in which Miller’s language and scenic construction gently plant the seeds of the high tragedy that will unfold later in the play.

You get a strong sense of that from Jemima Levick’s new production at Glasgow’s Tron. Alex Lowde’s generic set lacks atmosphere, and presents the whole action in a few shipping containers that serve as Eddie’s apartment, and which don’t have the slightest whiff of Brooklyn, or of anywhere else, about them. Instead, Levick’s production works its strength from the way she directs the actors’ interactions. Little gestures, such as a surprised jump or the gentle stroke of a hand on a leg, speak volumes about Eddie Carbone’s unspoken and uncomprehended love for his niece, Catherine, and the play’s various dialogues act as focal points around which unfolds the tragedy of a working man undone by the circumstances that engulf him.

All of the performances are strong, but the finest is Mark Holgate’s Eddie. Levick shrewdly casts Eddie as a younger man, vigorous enough to be energetic and to be a lover, but on just the wrong side of middle age, thus making his physical delusions impossible. Holgate understands that a little goes a long way with this complicated character. At heart, he’s a simple man, but Holgate plays him as a fathomless character who doesn’t come close to understanding himself. Jerky body language, such as his physical discomfort around the Italian immigrants, reinforces not just how awkward but also how reactive he is in every situation, making the unavoidability of his final tragedy all the more moving as it unfolds.

Next to him, Nicole Cooper’s Beatrice is so moving because she is so understated. Cursed by her insight, she’s the only character who fully understands the situation of her home life, and the knowledge destroys her. Holly Howden Gilchrist begins by playing Catherine as an overgrown child, which is just how Eddie sees her, but her body language develops as she grows into a mature woman, and she’s a different person by the end of the play. Nicholas Karimi plays Alfieri almost like a mystic or a seer, his rhythmic way with the monologues casting a spell on the audience.

The Italian brothers aren’t quite so strong: despite a boyish Rodolpho from a shell-suited Michael Guest, Reuben Joseph’s Marco is a little one-dimensional. Moreover, the whole thing boils over a bit in the final scenes, with the dialogue struggling to be heard as the characters holler over a rumbling soundtrack, and it’s a shame that Alfieri’s second scene with Eddie resorts to too much shouting. However, these are occasional missteps in an otherwise gripping evening. This is Levick’s first production as the new artistic director of the Tron. Let’s hope it’s a portent of good things to come.