The Cast Shines in North Coast Repertory Theatre’s “A View from the Bridge”
The intimate setting of North Coast Rep’s theatre befits an intimate look into relationships while describing the world the characters inhabit. With no set changes save for some table settings and Christmas decorations, lighting was the sole set design to control the focus.
The magnetic work of the cast creates an authentic time and place.
Richard Baird as Eddie Carbone
photo by Aaron Rumley
Life isn’t simple and humans suffer it with varying degrees of success. The Rep’s small stage could barely contain the presence of this troop of actors in the staging of Arthur Miller’s two act play. Set in Brooklyn in the 1950’s, two conflicts swirl around each other like a strand of DNA – both dripping with culture, one of women and men and one of social change. At a time when “submarine” meant the same pejorative thing for Italian immigrants arriving by ship to the East Coast as it did later in the Western US for “wetbacks” crossing the border from Mexico. While only in the title of the play and a photo on stage, the bridge didn’t play much of a role except as a locator, the piers of New York Harbor were much more present. For sense of location, only once did we slip from inside a home to the street and back again without much guidance for the audience.
Miller’s script peals back the layers of Eddie Carbone, husband and step-father, played by Richard Baird first with engaging charisma and then with the agonizing exposure of a cornered animal.
Margot White as Eddie’s wife Beatrice represented the second class (subject to a man) housewife of the 50’s but grew through the play to show the strength and conviction that keeps households together.
(Seated) Marie Zolezzi & Margot White
photo by Aaron Rumley
Marie Zolezzi as step-daughter Catherine captured the accent and at first innocence Miller wrote into the character and then – in parallel with Baird and White matured the character in front of our eyes.
While he’s from West Texas, actor Coby Rodgers as Rudolpho, a submarine and Beatrice’s love interest, might have grown up in Italy and learned English as a second language. On first appearance, you think you’re seeing a lanky blonde Swede, but shortly the flawless delivery of his lines as an Italian immigrant make it easy to drop that first impression. He is the younger brother of Marco, played with authority by Lowell Byers. There was one scene ending gesture with a chair that I believe served to foreshadow later events, but this reviewer was a bit mystified by the gesture as it was presented.
While the play’s dramatic arc turns tragic, the comedic timing of the cast inspired the audience to involuntary laughter a number of times early on. Might sound odd to say, but that made the whole experience just that much enjoyable.
Frank Corrado paying Alfieri is first introduced as a rather serious and sonorous sounding narrator, later turns into the immigration attorney the two submarines consult. Sometimes, the narrator seemed to mix with lawyer.
(Front: Frank Corrado & Lowell Byers, Back: Coby Rogers & Marie Zolezzi
photo by Aaron Rumley
You would speculate that simulating a fight scene in the close quarters of the Rep’s theatre would make such a scene hard to stage, but under the guidance of Director David Ellenstein the physical contact on stage was very well done.
In art, the proof of “Art” is how well it succeeds in tickling the imaginations and generating emotions in its viewers. On a small stage, achieving the illusion without breaking the verisimilitude of the moment (think a jet contrail over the scene of a wagon train in a movie) has immense challenges. The strength of the cast, the deft direction by Elenstein and canvas of the staging (set design by Marty Burnett) allowed us in the audience access to the real heart of the play and the struggles of its real inhabitants. It’s a good chance to lose yourself in a well told story.
Arthur Miller’s “A View from the Bridge” runs through October 13, 2024
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