A VIEW FROM THE BRIDGE

short

Translated by Ildikó Gáspár

Running time: 1 hour 20 minutes with no intermission

Premiere: 8 October, 2011

Eddie Carbone is a worker in the docks, he is a loader. A strong man. A good man. He respects and obeys the written and unwritten laws of his life. However he falls in love with someone who he should not fall in love with, and his passion is stronger than him. The steadiness of the play is due to the fact that it depicts the the truth of personal faith and its unavoidable destiny with the beauty of a Greek tragedy.

cast

and

Julianna Tóth, Zoltán Csire, Péter Csunderlik, István Ficza, Bálint Kocsán, Zsolt Máthé, Julianna Szabó, István Sztankó, Károly Urbanek, Milán Vajda

Director: PÁL MÁCSAI

reviews

 In a very unspectacular way, Eddie, as performed by Imre Csuja, occupies the centre of this performance. Indeed, his very motionlessness seems to contain magical power. His unembroidered inner tension and breakdown draws our attention – the strong expression of robust weakness, so to speak. As his wife Beatrice – characterized without self-pity, tart and worn-out – Anikó Für is superb, as is Attila Epres, who is polished, yet understanding as Alfiery the lawyer. Csaba Debreczeny’s Marco is strong, hewn from one solid block. The youngsters are played with fresh simplicity by Csaba Polgár and Franciska Törőcsik, the latter just out of the drama academy. In the doom, there is some sort of oratorical monumentality on the small stage cleared of furniture. The audience, assembled in rows to witness the sacrificial ritual, live through fear and foreboding as they watch the (un)foreseeable events.

Élet és Irodalom – Tamás Koltai

Despite having a re-conceived Greek style, the excitement of the performance does not arise from destiny or fate, but the nature of violence in the family. We can see in sensitively captured moments how oppression operates at home. Although there is no rude brutality, only greediness and selfishness – instead of black eyes, there is pushing and raised voices – one can still feel the tension until it is clear how it can amount to a sort of terror. Despite Eddie’s slight warning, Beatrice does not dare attend the wedding ceremony, and the actress Anikó Für merely sits on the couch and rubs her hands, while Imre Csuja turns his eyes like a raging bull. This is a remarkable moment, since it demonstrates a situation that one suspects cannot be sustained for long.

Színház.net – László Sz. Deme

Pál Mácsai creates, in an increasingly refined style, the concise structure of the play consisting of short scenes. With the help of music and soft voices, he masterfully creates a floating atmosphere in which the inevitably tragic end carries even more impact. The production’s great virtue is that, instead of detailed naturalism, it uses the modern theatre language of direct declamation. (...) With this production, the Örkény István Theatre certainly claims a spot among the best of 2011.

Toptipp.hu – White Elephant