By Arthur Miller
Directed by Lindsay Posner
Set and Costume by Peter McIntosh
A Bath Theatre Royal Production
The Theatre Royal Haymarket
London
Wednesday 17th July 2024 14.30
CAST
Dominic West – Eddie Carbone
Kate Fleetwood – Beatrice Carbone
Nia Towle – Catherine
Callum Scott Howells – Rodolpho
Pierro Niel-Mee- Marco
Martin Marquez – Mr Alfieri
Jimmy Gladdon – Louis
Michael Cusick- MikeSantino Smith– Tony, understudy Joseph Passafaro
Rob Pomfret- 1st Officer
Kieton Saunders Brown- second officerJoseph Passafaro– submarine, understudy Michael Bijok
Robyn Ellan Ashwood- ensemble
Charlotte Palmer- ensemble
Ryan Speakman – ensemble
Fred Zanni- ensemble
This was the impossible to get ticket when it started out at Bath’s tiny Ustinov Studio. Here it is transformed to the large Theatre Royal, Haymarket. At Bath it was one of three plays in a row for Lindsay Posner in the Ustinov Studio, all with stellar casts. We saw the other two, The Lover / The Collection and The Deep Blue Sea. Tickets for this one went immediately. We were on the wait list. There were very many ahead of us. The cast is the same. Look at the Ustinov online photos, and the costumes are the same. The set is the same.
I’ve said this in other reviews. For me, A View From The Bridge is Miller’s masterpiece. One of his masterpieces if you prefer, but some masterpieces are more equal than others. I rate it the greatest American play of the twentieth century.
It’s the largest cast I’ve seen for A View From The Bridge. My guess is that with a high price West End production, they had to employ understudies for all the main roles, so they might as well put them all on as a crowd at the end, and have two “submarines” (illegal immigrants) rather than one. It works well.
In fact, it’s around the number Arthur Miller lists … fifteen plus “neighbours”. He lists two submarines, and names Mr Lipari and Mrs Lipari. Lipari is the butcher (this may have two meanings) who also has two illegal immigrant relatives hidden in their apartment upstairs. They have actions but no names in the text. They’re not named here, though Eddie appeals to Lipari by name.
That final scene is enhanced by having a crowd in the background, which brings out Eddie’s deep shame. You can do it with a cast of seven or eight (Young Vic 2014). The immigration officers can double with Louis and Mike, (that’s what they did at Chichester last year) and even then we’ve done it with one immigration officer and combining Louis and Mike.
When you’ve come a long way to see Dominic West the ‘understudy’ notice on the door induces trepidation, but they are very minor parts.
Did they use that size of ensemble at Bath’s Ustinov? While the set looks like the Ustinov set, they could not have achieved the same set height, though all those fire escapes are unused, unlike Chichester’s production last year which used the height of the stage with levels to effect. The Chichester review (A View From The Bridge, Chichester, 2023) adds a lot of background on the play. I like this set. The Young Vic production in 2014 in the round went for absolutely minimalist. Chichester went for bright neon. This just looks real. And that’s how they did it. Real. My son lived in Brooklyn for several years. I know the area to the seaward side of The Bridge.
If I’d been doing the set, I’d have had a maze of electric wires, telephone wires, metal pipes and air conditioning on the outside of the building, but they would have had much less in the 1950s.
I was interested to read in the programme that Arthur Miller researched it in Sicily as well as around the Red Hook area of Brooklyn (at 4.30 am on icy mornings). It’s clear on the connections – the landowner in Sicily on horseback choosing which men would work today, and then the dock union boss doing the same in Brooklyn. Things don’t change, you see the same in parts of Los Angeles with Mexicans and other Central Americans waiting to be picked to work.
I remember an interview with Dominic West on his years in The Wire. he said he went into an American accent as soon as he landed in the USA to film each season, and maintained it on and off set until he left. He was totally accepted among the cast as ‘an American.’ That’s a major boost for Eddie Carbone. Not an accent issue throughout (a rarity). That goes to the other cast members too. We were talking about it with people in the interval. West was acting Eddie Carbone from his hair follicles to his toenails. He totally inhabited the role, and that’s before we even see the rage in part two. He looks a tough guy. He looks like a longshoreman. He even looks Italian-American. This is CarbonAY, not the later CarBONE. My only consideration was that he was taller than Marco, so looked tougher, though this Marco exudes enough determination to compensate.
A couple of reviews mentioned that he brought out a lighter good guy side. That’s the text though. He is generous (and self-congratulating) in having his wife’s two illegal immigrant cousins stay there. Catherine is genuinely pleased to see Eddie when he comes home. We see his jealousy of Catherine’s admiration for Rodolpho grow, and grow and then twist and distort. I thought the way he played both scenes when Beatrice complains that he shows her no attention ‘as a wife’ true quality acting from both.
Yes, it’s Dominic West, but that’s far from all. Kate Fleetwood as Beatrice Carbone, his wife, has a sculptured thin-lipped face, which looks almost Appalachian, a subject from Let Us Now Praise Famous Men. She looks like someone who has worked hard all her life. Money has always been a problem, and she had to take in Beatrice, her sister’s child, as a baby when her sister died. She has realised that Eddie’s affection for Beatrice has crept beyond normal levels. She knows it long before Eddie can admit it to himself. Not that he ever does.
Marco and Rodolpho are the cousins from Sicily. Marco is the family man with three children, one of them sick and in need of medicine. Pierro Niel-Mee is a marvellously nuanced, respectful Marco, wringing his hands in gratitude. This is the 1950s with Italian emigration to America at a height, much of it illegal or submarine. They have fake seaman papers to allow them to disembark, than when they get work on the docks they have to remit payments to the Mafia to reimburse their passage, Miller never mentions the word Mafia. They are in constant danger of expulsion from the immigration authorities. For a younger audience it’s hard to see why emigration wouldn’t rather be from the USA to Italy, a route I’d prefer. Miller explains it clearly. Italy has it all … except work. It’s easy to transpose that to immigration into 2020s USA or 2020s Europe. Marco requires giving continual attentive background listening and reaction. He is getting warier of Eddie’s attitude to Rodolpho. Watchful. Eventually he will have to intervene after Eddie sets up a boxing lesson as an excuse to hit Rodolpho. This is the best Marco I’ve seen.
Callum Scott-Howells starred with Rosie Sheehy at the National in Romeo & Julie. A perfect Rodolpho. It’s a hard part. You have to be cheerful, able to sing the high notes in Paper Doll, as well as being an accomplished dancer. Eddie is worried about the blonde hair, the taste for fashionable clothes, the high notes, the dressmaking skills. People on the docks find Rodolpho full of humour.
Mike That blond one, though – (Eddie looks at him). He’s got a sense of humour. (Louis snickers)
Eddie (searchingly) Yeah, he’s funny.
Mike (starting to laugh) Well, he ain’t exackly funny, but he’s always like makin’ remarks like, y’kow? He comes around, everybody’s laughin’ (Louis laughs)
Eddie (uncomfortable, grinning) Yeah, well – he’s got a sense of humour.
Note the use of like, y’know which frequency studies of English now place in the Top Twenty or so words. Miller knew that sixty plus years ago.
Eddie suspects the sub-text for funny and cheerful is gay and they’re laughing AT Rodolpho. The word ‘gay’ is never said because it wasn’t at all common then but the connection looks obvious in 2024. We can argue when gay was first used to mean homosexual, it can be traced back to limited use in the 1920s, so can more explicitly ‘punk’ which Eddie later uses. Eddie is confused, all he can say to Mr Alfieri the lawyer is:
Eddie I’m talking to you confidential, ain’t I?
Alfieri Certainly.
Eddie I mean it don’t go no place but here. Because I don’t like to say this about anybody. Even my wife, I didn’t exactly say this.
Alfieri What is it?
Eddie (takes a breath and glances briefly over each shoulder) the guy ain’t right, Mr Alfieri.
Alfieri What do you mean?
Eddie I mean he ain’t right.
This leads to the scene where he tries to prove it to Catherine by kissing Rodolpho on the lips.
Nia Towle as Catherine looks genuinely young. She radiates innocence.
When she is eventually left alone in the house for the first time with Rodolpho, they go into the back room. I thought there was new business here, Eddie returning drunk, taking bottles from various pockets (a case of whisky has gone missing at the docks, it being 23rd December), then Catherine re-emerging with her dress wrongly buttoned … but this is exactly how it is set out in the original text too. Her distress over the wedding (Eddie refuses to go) and the eventual end is powerfully acted.
Martin Marquez is the most convincing Alfieri I’ve seen. He’s the local lawyer, serving as a one man Greek chorus commenting on the action. His opening speech references the Greeks. There are still said to be Greek speaking villages in Sicily. Sicily was considered part of classical Greece … Archimedes was from Syracuse. Agrigento has its Greek temples. Taormina’s theatre was originally Greek. A Greek chorus is apposite in a tragedy.
Alfieri A lawyer means the law, and in Sicily, where they come from, the law has not been a friendly idea since the Greeks were beaten.
Later he says:
Alfieri The thought comes that in some Caesar’s year, in Calabria perhaps, or on the cliff at Syracuse, another lawyer, quite differently dressed, heard the same complaint.
The interval point was at the end of the boxing lesson / chair holding scene, rather than after Alfieri’s love for the niece / love for the daughter speech (which I have seen as a break point). This is exactly how it is in the original text, because there is a time shift to Christmas, and there are paper chains on the set. They add poignancy here by having a crucial Beatrice / Eddie dialogue about Catherine’s wedding while carefully wrapping up the Christmas decorations.
The chair scene ends Act One. This is the third major production in a row where they pick it up by the back leg. I’ve quibbled in every review. Miller says ‘by one leg’ but when we did it at university, the director insisted it was by the front leg. She had seen a recent production, I believe. It is harder because the weight of the back tilts it and Marco has to keep it straight. We even had an added line when Eddie grabs the back leg. No, like this … We continued that in our twice a year ELT productions. I know, I played Marco, and it is very hard work.
It was expensive. We stayed over the night before and saw The Constituent, but that was an add on to this previously made matinee booking. Recently, as London hotel prices and West End ticket prices spiral ever higher, and trains get disrupted, and car parks spiral too, we begin to question whether it’s worth the time, money and effort. I have declined press invitations too. We pay. Then you see an incredible production like this. We walked out of the theatre. Karen said ‘That defines five stars. It is the most realistic version we’ve ever seen.‘ I agreed. I would add the best in every role too.
*****
FOOTNOTE
There is a chapter on an ELT production of ‘A View From The Bridge’ in the pseudonymous comic novel Italian Affairs. This is close to describing some of my experiences with the play. Follow link.
LOO SPOT
Karen says best of the old West End theatres for loos. High praise.
WHAT THE CRITICS SAID
Reviews of Bath or London? Such totally different theatres. I know this play very well indeed. I cannot believe those sub-three star reviews listed below. I put it down to general snottiness about famous film actors like Dominic West on stage in the West End. They tend to lose a couple of stars as soon as they’re cast. The list is long. Jude Law in Dr Faustus and Henry V (we saw both) is a prime example of critical nose holding after a five star performance.
5 star
Louise Penn, Broadway World *****
Michael Higgs, The UpComing *****
4 star
Arifa Akbar, The Guardian ****
Domenic Cavendish, Telegraph ****
Tim Bano, The Independent ****
Daz Gale, All That Dazzles, ****
Financial Times, ****
Olivia Rook, London Theatre ****
3 star
Susannah Clap, Observer ***
Nick Curtis, The Standard ***
Andrzej Lukowski, Time Out ***
Sarah Crompton, What’s On Stage ***
Anya Ryan, The Stage ***
LINKS ON THIS BLOG
ARTHUR MILLER
The Crucible by Arthur Miller, Old Vic 2014
The Crucible, National Theatre 2022
The Price, Theatre Royal Bath 2018
All My Sons by Arthur Miller, Talawa Theatre at Salisbury Playhouse
A View From The Bridge by Arthur Miller, Young Vic 2014
A View From The Bridge, Chichester, 2023
A View From The Bridge, by Arthur Miller, Theatre Royal Haymarket 2024
Death of A Salesman, by Arthur Miller, RSC 2015
LINDSAY POSNER (Director)
The Deep Blue Sea, Bath Ustinov 2014
The Lover / The Collection by Harold Pinter, Bath Ustinov 2024
Farewell Mr Haffman By Jean-Philippe Gaguerre, Bath Ustinov 2023
God of Carnage by Yasmina Reza, Bath Theatre Royal 2018
The Lie by Florian Zeller, Menier Chocolate Factory, 2017
The Truth by Florian Zeller, Menier Chocolate Factory 2016
Communicating Doors by Alan Ayckbourn, Menier Chocolate Factory 2015
Dinner With Saddam by Anthony Horowitz, Menier Chocolate Factory 2015
The Hypochondriac by Moliere, adapted Richard Bean, Bath Theatre Royal, 2014
A Little Hotel On The Side By Feydau, Bath Theatre Royal 2013
She Stoops To Conquer by Goldsmith, Bath Theatre Royal 2014
Hay Fever by Noel Coward, Bath Theatre Royal 2014
Abigail’s Party by Mike Leigh, Poole Lighthouse 2013
DOMINIC WEST
Downton Abbey: A New Era (FILM)
Centurion (FILM)
Testament of Youth (FILM)
KATE FLEETWOOD
King Lear, National Theatre 2014(Goneril)
Absolute Hell, by Rodney Ackland National Theatre 2018
CALLUM SCOTT HOWELLS
Romeo & Julie by Gary Owen, National Theatre 2023
PIERRO NIEL-MEE
The Hypocrite by Philip Breen, RSC 2017
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