Theatre - A View From The Bridge

Who/what/where: A View From The Bridge, The Young Vic

I like the Young Vic as a venue, while the seating can be a bit uncomfortable they always try to do something a little different with the stage and the set. This was no exception, and the audience is effectively around three-quarters of the venue with the play taking place between them. It can be a little off-putting sometimes to look past the actors and see a sea of faces staring through, but that's a minor niggle.

The set if fairly minimalistic, the stage has a glass lip around it - this is topped with benches, aside from that there's use of sprinklers to act as a shower etc, even the props are limited to a chair and not a lot else, the rest is entirely done with costume and the actor's performances, so it's just as well they all put in excellent performances. Interestingly enough everyone is barefoot throughout the entire performance bar a couple of key moments - whether this is to add to the enclosed feel of their apartment, almost as a a boxing ring - as will become evident when it drives the two men into conflict, or is like that for another reason is open to your own interpretation. The clean, minimalistic feel makes the performance feel almost timeless - with only certain references within the dialogue to pin it down to a particular decade.

The play runs for around two hours without an interval, so strap yourself in, you're in for an intensive ride that doesn't let up until it's done with you.

Mark Strong stars as Eddie Carbone. This is his first role on stage in some years, and certainly the first I've caught him in, though I have seen him in several films etc. He looks to have lost some weight for the role, which is fitting, and he brings a perfect amount of intensity to the role, when the lawyer, our narrator, describes Eddie as having "eyes like tunnels" Strong is able to capture this perfectly.

Phoebe Fox is Catherine, Eddie's niece, and when they say in the play about the shortness of her skirt, the performance has taken this and run with it - we don't believe there was a single person in the audience that didn't see the character's underwear at least one, certainly the girls in our group commented on it after the play.

Eddie's tragic flaw that he loves his niece a little too obsessively, and this one thing drives him deeper and deeper down a dark route, no matter how good his intentions we can see the inevitable, yet we can no more turn away than he can. The man is intense, flawed, driven, and yet perfectly understandable - while people may not go down the same route as he did, everybody can certainly imagine characters who would.

Eddie Carbone and his wife play host to two illegal immigrants, cousins of hers from Italy, the older brother, Marco, aims to be there for a while to work and earn money for his wife and children at home, and had it just been him there would have been no problem, but his younger brother, Rodolpho is where it all starts to go wrong. He enjoys the American life a little too much, and his traits, in addition to his blossoming relationship with Eddie's niece Catherine, don't sit well with Eddie.

As the play progresses and time passes the small apartment becomes ever more claustrophobic, a steady beat, rhythmical like the ticking of a clock is our only background noise as we experience some of the tenses silences you'll see on stage. Simply sitting watching characters stare at each other is emotionally draining in a way you wouldn't think possible, so you can just imagine what it must take out of the actors to do that, day after day.

I don't want to say too much about the play's climax in case people haven't encountered the play before, but suffice it to say that this is very well done and the stage design works very well for it.

The run is already sold-out, and I can understand why. However it is possible to call on the day, and that's certainly something I suggest doing if you get the opportunity to do so.