The news is filled with inappropriate behavior by men toward young women and their over-reliance on violence, and the thorny knot of immigration which may never be untied, so Arthur Miller’s 1955 play “A View From the Bridge” takes on some new meaning and relevance for today’s audiences. There are even working working class laborers (longshoremen) in this tragedy of human frailty and rage. Eddie Carbone is loved and respected in his community, but his repressed carnal love for his wife’s 18 year-old orphaned niece Catherine, who lives with them, becomes an increasingly unbearable problem for him as Catherine begins to spread her wings, wanting a job and marriage. Things begin to boil over when wife Beatrice’s cousins from Italy, smuggled into New York, come to stay with them until they can make a new life in America. Catherine falls in love with one of the cousins, Rodopho, and Eddie snaps. To get rid of Rodolpho, he anonymously turns in the 2 illegal immigrants. His betrayal is discovered and the other cousin Marco vows vengeance. Director Irwin Appel and a strikingly good cast take us on a slowly building journey from innocence and love to lust, jealousy and violence, and the harrowing ending, despite being not unexpected, is shockingly played out. Catharsis achieved!
