Vue Cinema, Piccadilly, London
March 26, 2015

Ok – so let me give you the most important piece of information first – this is a truly remarkable production of A View from the Bridge and I for one shall never forget it. The second most important bit of information is – there could be things about this film that irritate, distract or downright annoy you but if that happens please stay with it, because it’s worth it.

Arthur Miller called himself a “moralist playwright”, and he was indeed the late 20th century’s par excellence example of that. His plays take some of the most contentious socio-political issues of 50s USA and tackle them head on. A View from the Bridge involves immigration, family versus public duty, sexuality and a whiff of paedophilia: all of which are of course amongst today’s most debated subjects. It’s therefore not difficult to imagine that it was a wish to focus on relevance rather than be distracted by period detail that led the director, Ivo Van Hove, to create an impressionistic rather than a naturalistic production.

The stage is a rectangle enclosed by a transparent wall which doubles as seating, in the middle of the back wall is...