The Octagon’s artistic director, David Thacker, is an insightful director of US drama. His productions are calibrated so that each detail (of set and costume, of light and sound) carries just the weighting it needs to convey meaning. Under his direction, actors achieve life-filled characterisations by subtly intertwining the realistic and poetic strands twirled into so much 20th-century American drama.
All these elements are present in this new production of Arthur Miller’s 1955 modern tragedy, set among the Italian immigrant community of New York’s waterfront. Interestingly, here Thacker’s strengths bring out the play’s weakness – inherent in its raison d’etre. Miller has described “the engine of the play” as the “idea of a man fulfilling his destiny”. Longshoreman Eddie Carbone is obsessed with preserving the childish innocence of the 17-year-old, orphaned niece he has raised. His attempts to prevent her forming relationships in the world beyond their cramped flat develop into perversion when the world enters his home in the form of two illegal immigrants, cousins of his wife. Adult, romantic love between the niece and younger cousin drives Eddie to despair and betrayal (magnificent slow fuse to explosion from Colin Connor).
Miller’s focus on Eddie deprives his other characters of agency; they are there to push the hero to his fate. For the play to work fully, this must not be obvious. In giving time for relationships to grow, Thacker develops the action just that bit too slowly. Characterisations are thus made splendidly apparent, but so too is Miller’s manipulativeness.
