Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Arthur Miller, who died Feb. 10, once told New York Times critic Mel Gussow he thought he’d be remembered most for having created “some good parts for actors.”
Pushed by Gussow to offer a more definitive statement on what separated him from his peers, Miller said, “My plays are dealing with essential dilemmas of what it means to be human.”
Miller’s penchant for creating potent characters who probe the predicaments of the human condition was cemented over time by two of his most well-known plays, “Death of a Salesman” and “The Crucible.” In “A View From the Bridge,” which opens this Friday at the Robinson Theatre, Miller’s notable dexterity reached similar heights.
Set in a mid-1950s tenement of Brooklyn, the play tells the story of an Italian longshoreman with
incestuous desires for his niece. Desire quickly turns into jealousy, causing him to betray his family
and community.
The play’s exploration of loyalty and community parallels Miller’s own experience during the McCarthy era, when he refused to name names when testifying before the House Un-American Activities Committee.
“It’s the downward spiral of a man who is already at the bottom,” Jay Hash, who plays the lead role of Eddie Carbone, said. The play wastes no time setting up Eddie’s descent.
Instead of a standard three-act structure, a single momentum-building story arc explodes from the narrator’s opening words.
“Miller’s purpose was to write a contemporary play structured like a Greek tragedy,” director Jeffrey Mason said. “The sense of acceleration is quite pronounced.”
For the University Theatre’s production of the play, Mason added a stylistic touch to the realism of Miller’s thundering vision by adding dance to the narrator’s scenes.
“I wanted his sections to be more than just a narrator standing on a stage,” he said. “Having music suggested the possibility of dance or more stylized movement than actors walking around.”
The opening of the play contains a four-minute monologue and requires the introduction of the Brooklyn street scene, which Mason said “seems to open the door to something more theatrical, more heightened, than realistic interaction.”
Mason, who is also head of the University’s theater arts department, said he’s never heard of anyone adding dance to the play, but saw it as an opportunity to heighten the play’s emotional power while bringing the livelihood of its 1950s Brooklyn street scene to life.
“It’s unusual because it’s not written to have dance in it,” choreographer Laura Hiszczynskyj said. The challenge was to “make it look like it’s supposed to be there.”
“It’s not distracting at all. If
anything, it’s beautiful,” Hash said, adding that the dancing is limited to background characters.
Mason also wanted to pay close attention to the authenticity of the characters’ accents. Characters range from descendants of Italian immigrants to Sicilian immigrants just off the boat, which required subtle differences in each character’s dialect. But Mason could not find a recording of an old-world Sicilian accent he could use to instruct his actors.
Eventually he found a Ph.D. student from Italy in the Department of Romance Languages who could help. He had the student record certain lines of dialogue and then Mason studied the tapes so he could coach his actors.
“At first, it was really tough,” cast member Jordan Wolfer said. “The Italian dialect is one of the toughest to get into.”
While learning the different dialects presents a technical challenge, Mason said the emotional depth of the characters provides a great opportunity for young actors to raise the emotional stakes of their performances.
“You can sort of let your hair down,” he said.
But honing in on Miller’s characters was complicated.
“It’s not easy,” said Hash, who explained that the emotions of the play come as much from what the characters say as from what they don’t say. The challenge, he said, was to portray a balance of inner rage and outwardly expressed emotions.
The University Theatre’s production of “A View From the Bridge” is at the Robinson Theatre on Feb. 25-26 at
8 p.m.; March 3 at 7:30 p.m.; and March 4-5 and 11-12 at 8 p.m. A benefit performance to assist the tsunami relief efforts will be held March 6 at 2 p.m. Tickets cost $5 for University students; $12 for general admission; $9 for senior citizens, University faculty, and non-University students; and $7 for youth. Tickets are available at the Erb Memorial Union and at the University Theatre Box Office in the Robinson Theatre on the evenings of performances.

Josh Lintereur is a freelance reporter for the Daily Emerald