BRIDGING FAMILY DYNAMICS IN THIS CLASSIC
North Coast Rep‘s next offering, A View from the Bridge, a landmark drama from 1955, takes on new relevance today. Opening tonight, September 11, and running through October 6. A rarity worth a return, Arthur Miller’s drama of an inevitable domestic tragedy focuses on the family and the neighborhood in which they live. The strengths are compassion for the characters; a plot that’s both relentless and timeless; and the heartfelt truth that all sins are social. The show bursts with a plot where every achingly unavoidable twist seems foretold.
The cast of North Coast Rep's A View from the Bridge: (Front) Marie Zolezzi, Richard Baird,
Margot White; (Back) Matthew Salazar-Thompson, Lowell Byers,
Frank Corrado, Coby Rogers, Steve Froehlich
What stands out in 2024 about this primal script is how much Miller anticipates today’s xenophobic anti-immigrant witch hunts — rancor that splits families as much as nations. As in The Crucible and All My Sons, no playwright connects the personal and the public so powerfully, whether fusing the sexual repression of teenage girls to homicidal hysteria or cost-cutting corruption to a son’s suicide. It takes a village.
Coby Rogers, Marie Zolezzi
Post-war Brooklyn looms as the setting beyond the stage, impassively witnessing this modern Greek tragedy take its persistent toll. From the stark start of Arthur Miller’s tale, the lawyer Alfieri, our worldly-wise narrator, is a moral anchor amid this real-life soap opera. He is our Greek Chorus which warns there is tragedy ahead, but there is nothing to stop the trajectory.
Lowell Byers, Frank Corrado, Coby Rogers
Miller’s taut and driven script leaves us helpless to intervene as it tailspins to disaster. Its power lies in the specificity of its story, a rootedness that paradoxically takes the tale “out of time” (which explains Alfieri as Greek Chorus): We know it will be repeated again and again in other homes and periods.
The conflict couldn’t be clearer or uglier.
Lowell Byers, Richard Baird, Coby Rogers, Marie Zolezzi & Margot White
The tales takes a while to spring all of Miller’s traps in this slightly longer than average play (a recent L.A. production ran 140 minutes), but prepare to be on board all the way. While NCR generally casts well overall, this reviewer is particularly excited to see Frank Corrado as Alfieri after his tour de force as Hermann Göring in NCR’s Sense of Decency. Seasoned director David Ellenstein is at the helm with a cast of recognizable San Diego actors.
Arthur Miller (1915-2005) was a prolific playwright. He was awarded the Avery Hopwood Award for Playwriting at University of Michigan in 1936. He twice won the New York Drama Critics Circle Award, received two Emmy awards and three Tony Awards for his plays, as well as a 1999 Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement.
Marie Zolezzi, Richard Baird & Margot White
promo photos by Aaron Rumley
A View from the Bridge
North Coast Repertory Theatre
987 Lomas Santa Fe Drive in Solana Beach
Showtimes vary from week to week; see options at this link
Sept 11 – Oct 6, 2024
for tickets, call 858.481-1055 or visit North Coast Rep
