A Taut Brooklyn Tragedy in 'A View From the Bridge'

Eddie Carbone (Mark Strong) is a simple man of the 1950s. He works the docks in Red Hook as a longshoreman. He goes bowling. And he loves his 17-year-old, orphaned niece, Catherine. Maybe too much. Maybe sexually, though he won't admit that to himself.

But when his wife's two Italian cousins come to stay after illegally immigrating, everything changes. The coltish Catherine (Phoebe Fox) stops jumping up into Eddie's arms like a child and instead goes to the movies with the happy-go-lucky Rodolpho (Russell Tovey). Eddie is jealous. And enraged. And makes a decision that will destroy his family.

Director Ivo van Hove has heightened the mythic qualities of Arthur Miller's play by adding liberal silences — and by staging it in a blindingly white cube surrounded by the audience on three sides, almost like a boxing ring (Jan Versweyveld is the scenic and lighting designer). Characters circle each other menacingly, their bare feet making them seem more primitive. Strong gives a powerful performance as Eddie, his eyes sad and confused as his emotions take control of his morals. He is balanced by Nicola Walker, who plays his wife Bea as a practical woman who knows what's going on and tries to circumvent it with careful words.

My one quibble is with Tom Gibbons's cinematic, ever-present sound: choral music, steady percussion, gongs. Sometimes it serves to heighten the tragedy — more often it distracts from the ferocious work happening onstage.