A View from the Bridge

A classic work is one which still speaks. A View from the Bridge screams. This 66-year-old play is still powerful and relevant, especially in the hands of Lisa Gormley and such strong performers. 

This production arose to fruition from an online course in American theatre; what was achieved in that space was deemed too good to abandon, felicitously with the ideal cast.

Jason Maxwell Morrison as Eddie Carbone excels in creating a complex character who is both threatening and sympathetic. His performance as the conflicted man, struggling with his version of masculinity, is riveting.

Kylie Marie Jenner brings a particular grace to her role as Carbone’s wife. She is a woman who speaks with bravery when silence, obedience and ‘respect’ is what is demanded. She and Ellie Freeman (Catherine) wrestle with the eternal conflict between freedom and duty.  Ellie Freeman ably portrays the complexity of a girl who desires to exercise her choice but still esteems the man who would deny it. 

Brent Basstian was perfectly cast as Marco, a seemingly passive man whose strength is held in check until it is not.

Matthew Newell creates the character of Rodolpho as both charming and ingenuous to the point when the audience wonders if he is neither.

This cast of complex characters is held together by the eponymous ‘bridge’ Alfieri (Jon Lenthall). Lenthall is always a strong performer and a pleasure to watch.

Bevan Harloch undertook various support roles very capably. He and others used the space well to create a sense of the community in which the Carbones live. This was augmented by the sound design. The sound of straining dockyard ropes evoked the spiralling tension in the Carbone home. Contemporaneous popular music was also well curated by Gareth Dawson.

Every cast member undertook dialect coaching. If the occasional word was subsumed by the accent, the authenticity achieved was very much worth the effort.

The play is very well crafted. Not a word is wasted. Each small scene moves forward the plot and the character development with no respite.  The decision not to have an interval was a wise choice in terms of sustaining the gathering storm. 

In a small regional hall with plastic seats, such was the audience engagement that you could not hear a pin drop. A View from the Bridge can be seen in Cygnet October 8-9.

Anne Blythe-Cooper