Arthur Miller's A View from the Bridge on the London stage

Calling all fans of that wonderful actor Ken Stott...

From 22 January 2009, Arthur Miller's A View from the Bridge will be at the Duke of York's Theatre in London, running through to 16 May.  Starring alongside Ken Stott will be American actress Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio.  If you manage an early booking you might achieve the preview price of £36 for a band B stall seat.  Later, seat prices appear to start at £46 and go up to £66.  (When did ticket prices become so expensive?)

I am looking forward to this.  It's been a long time since I last saw Ken Stott on

stage and he can deliver an explosive performance.  The case in point was Yasmina Reza's Art.  I wish I'd gone back to see it again.  (Not unheard of in my case as I once saw Terry Johnson's play Dead Funny three times; because it was dead funny.)  If I recall correctly, Art was a play of some 1.5 hrs, but the key thing here is that it did not have an interval.  Alas, I needed to pay a visit to the ladies just as Stott moved into a long and emotional monologue.  Luckily, I could still hear it, but, alas, I didn't see it.

A View from the Bridge does not promise much in the way of humour, but if you wish to see Stott deliver perfect comic timing, you can do no better than watch Shallow Grave.  There's a scene in there that's a classic for me, involving the police officer (Stott) and his younger colleague, sitting on a sofa interviewing the flatmates.  It has to be the perfect double-act and it has certainly lingered in my mind.  Shallow Grave is to be re-released in March 2009 as a special edition DVD, although Amazon's page does not indicate what the "special edition" involves.

A long ago BBC series Takin' Over the Asylum was recently released on DVD, which I commented on here.  Again, it's classic Stott, but it's also an excellently produced series with an excellent cast (including a young David Tennant).

So, early in 2009 we see Stott return to the London stage and what a treat!  I am so looking forward to this.