A View from the Bridge

By ARTHUR MILLER
Liverpool Playhouse

Reviewed by Catrina Macfie

With it’s central themes of obsession, jealousy, pride and betrayal, Arthur Miller’s classic play crackles with all the passion and raw emotion of the Sicilian community in which it is set.

The protagonist Eddie Carbone, an illiterate Italian longshoreman living in 1950’s Brooklyn, USA, must confront his obsessive and incestuous love for his adopted niece Catherine, when his wife’s two Italian cousins illegally lodge at their home. Romance blossoms between her and one cousin, Rodolpho, who ultimately acts as the catalyst for Eddie’s tragic fate.

Intent on preventing their marriage and possessing her himself, Eddie’s manipulative manoeuvres and warnings to Catherine fail - “Most people ain’t people”. Anonymously tipping off immigration, he breaks a strict Sicilian code due to unnatural passion and desperation.

Eventually exposed as a traitor, Eddie’s accidental suicide by his own knife in a fight during the closing scene is symbolic of the self-destructive nature that led to this. Yet his Everyman persona and tragic heroism ensures we empathise with his fragility.

The narrative voice provided by Eddie’s lawyer, Alfieri, is a deft mechanism as his “view from the bridge” is as an unbiased participator and spectator offering a first-hand account of events. His friendship with Eddie reassures us that he does possess positive traits and assures our sympathy.

Extremely tautly-enacted with engaging and humorous dialogue and authentic accents, this production proved a success. Moreover, with it’s subject matter of immigration issues it remains as relevant today as when it was written half a century ago.