BWW Reviews: A VIEW FROM THE BRIDGE, Wyndham's Theatre, February 17 2015

One of the most critically acclaimed productions of 2014, 'A View From The Bridge' transfers from The Young Vic to a run at Wyndham's Theatre, allowing a new wave of audiences to experience Arthur Miller's tale of familial tragedy.

Eddie Carbone (Mark Strong, more on him later) is a longshoreman living under the Brooklyn Bridge in the sketchy suburb of Red Hook. Childless themselves, he and wife Beatrice (Nicola Walker - restrainedly diplomatic given the circumstances she finds herself in) look after her orphaned nymph niece Catherine (Phoebe Fox). It's in her blossoming sexuality and the ambiguity of the father/uncle daughter relationship that the problems for the family begin, made more pronounced by the arrival of a pair of Italian relations looking for work on the ships.

Everyone in Red Hook is struggling; with poverty, relationships, untoward thoughts. Miller examines what happens to at the crux of change, descent into middle age in relationships, immigration and the crucial impact of a decision.

Strong is physically huge, a giant of pent-up emotion, he could not have done a better job in this role. As his wife, Walker is doggedly loyal, despite the turmoil, whilst Fox deserves all the plaudits she's ever been given including a Screen International 'Star of Tomorrow'.

Emun Elliott as Marco is quietly thoughtful as the more measured Italian immigrant, yet it is he with most to lose, whilst Luke Norris's Rodolpho's intentions are unclear.

Director Ivo Van Hove has broken boundaries with this version of Miller's words and is unnecessarily humble as Andrew Dickson's interview from the play's programme shows; "I think if Tennessee Williams or Miller lived today they would want something innovative. If you just reproduce what they envisaged long ago it wouldn't have the same force. I want to push through the limits, make the ultimate production." He shrugs, "That's an ambition, of course. You never get there."

Retaining the 'in the round' effect achieved at the show's previous home in the Young Vic, Jan Versweyveld's production design puts some seating on the stage which reflects a stark box with no distractions as the characters enter and exit through a single door.

With such physical acting, it is clever to not have an interval (as is 'en vogue' currently and indeed how Miller originally intended the play) as it keeps you in heightened state of emotion for the two-hour duration and renders you as an audience member spent, never mind the stunning actors who repeat this feat night after night, and sometimes twice a day, to them I doff my hat.

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