Is it an innocent domestic moment or a portent of something more ominous? It happens early enough in Jemima Levick’s thrilling production – her debut as the Tron’s artistic director – to leave some doubt. But when Mark Holgate’s Eddie Carbone emerges from the onstage shower, his torso glistening as he steps out in his boxers, you do fear for his niece’s safety. Should they really be alone together?
Excellently played by newcomer Holly Howden Gilchrist, Catherine is a complex jumble of vulnerability and assurance, at once naive and sharp, a teenager bursting with youthful energy and adult ambition. Sharing close quarters with the decent-but-flawed Eddie in Arthur Miller’s classic, she is an unwitting catalyst for his tragic downfall. In the words of Nicholas Karimi’s lawyer Alfieri, “there is too much love for the niece”, even if Eddie cannot see it himself.
