A View from the Bridge: An Illustrated Guide
Everything you need to know about Miller’s classic play
Arthur Miller’s A View from the Bridge is one of the greatest plays ever written.
The play is a classic tragedy in the Greek sense. There is a protagonist (Eddie Carbone) whose hubris and stubbornness permeates every aspect of his life until it leads to a fatal conclusion.
But A View from the Bridge is different in that it is a tragedy, in the grandest sense, about ordinary people. In his essay Tragedy and the Common Man, Miller writes:
I believe that the common man is as apt a subject for tragedy in its highest sense as kings were. The quality in tragedies that does shake us, however, derives from the underlying fear of being displaced, the disaster inherent in being torn away from our chosen image of what or who we are in this world. Among us today this fear is as strong, and perhaps stronger, than it ever was. In fact, it is the common man who knows this fear best.
The play tells an epic story, yes, but it does so with ordinary people. Through the character of Eddie Carbone, audiences experience emotions that are immediately familiar, that are immediately recognisable. This is key to the play’s incredible emotional power, and why Arthur Miller’s work has endured for so long.
The Story:
It’s best to think of A View from the Bridge as a primal scream heard throughout the history of modern theatre. The play tells the story of Eddie Carbone, whose simple life is thrown into turmoil when two Italian migrants arrive on his doorstep. As his dark web of desire unravels around him and he struggles to navigate a world in a state of flux, his connections to his family are put to the test.
This is a play about man at his most ferocious and elemental. About people searching for their place in the world. It is a taut drama that offers a searing social critique of the operation of modern masculinity whilst remaining deeply, beautifully, human.
A View from the Bridge is a classic: essential viewing for every theatre lover. You’d be silly not to see it.
The Team:
The Writer:
A View from The Bridge is written by Arthur Miller, who is known as one of the twentieth centuries greatest playwrights and also the husband of Marilyn Monroe — what a powerhouse duo.
His plays include Death of a Salesman, The Crucible and All My Sons in addition to A View from the Bridge. His work is notable in that it took rebels and underdogs, like Willy Loman and Eddie Carbone, and placed their struggles on an epic stage.
The Director:
Our production of A View from the Bridge is brought to the stage by the dynamite directorial team of Kate Champion and assistant director Clara Solly-Slade.
Throughout the rehearsal process they’ve been excavating some of Miller’s most fundamental ideas to create an interpretation of his work that is physical, muscular and ruthlessly powerful.
The Cast:
A work like this demands the best of the best, and we’ve assembled a team of theatrical Olympians to take on Miller’s masterpiece. Some of South Australia’s finest theatrical talent have come together to bring the story of Eddie Carbone and his family roaring to life.
In short:
One of the greatest plays in history thunders onto the stage in a new production from some of Australia’s most brilliant theatrical talents. This is theatre with a captial ‘T’ (Theatre). Big cast, big set, big feelings and big ideas all come together for an electric night of storytelling.
Bring tissues. A View from the Bridge can (and will) knock your socks off. This is modern tragedy at its best.
