A View from the Bridge
Reviewed by David Kashimba
Photo by Wendell H. Wilson

 “He was as good a man as he had to be,” says the narrator (Rick Williams) in Ross Valley Players’ production of A View from the Bridge. He’s describing Eddie Carbone (Eric Burke), the main character in this drama by Arthur Miller. Eddie is a longshoreman on the docks of New York City in the 1950s. He’s a colorful guy, like all longshoremen, thinking nothing of stealing a case of Scotch whisky as he’s unloading an entire pallet board of scotch from a cargo ship, but nobody steals from Eddie Carbone. He has his own moral code which doesn’t always agree with the rest of the world, but Eddie’s willing to put his life on the line for his code, and flawed or not, we have to respect that.

Directed by Cris Cassell, this excellent drama grabs you right from the start and doesn’t let go. Cassell has put together a cast that’s hard to beat with Denise Elia playing Catherine, the niece that Eddie and his wife Beatrice (Hallie Frazer) raised and Michael Orlando and Jordan Winer playing Beatrice’s Sicilian cousins Marco and Rodolpho.

This drama is full of repressed sexual undercurrents and we can feel an escalating violence brewing in Eddie. Miller subtly weaves sex and violence together in a Freudian sublimation that reaches a fever pitch of flowing blood. We sense what’s coming and want to look away but can’t, locked in by our own frail humanity.

For tickets or more information about this powerful drama call (415) 456-9555 or visit www.rossvalleyplayers.com.

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