Arthur Miller’s A VIEW FROM THE BRIDGE @ Cal Rep

Off the tops of their heads Gary Johnson and Jill Stein may not be able to name any world leaders they like, but I’ll be they can name one Arthur Miller play. So can you. And it’s not A View from the Bridge.

Maybe it’s time to change that, because despite its merits, Death of a Salesman has not aged especially well, whereas A View from the Bridge, a Greek-style tragedy that feels right at home in postwar Brooklyn, maintains a timelessness with its tale of how great a toll unchecked jealousy take.

Eddie (Josh Nathan), “as good a man as he ha[s] to be in a world that’s hard and evil,” has worked hard as a dockworker all of his adult life, and he’s eked out a living for his wife Beatrice (Katheen Wilhoite) and orphaned niece Catherine (Julia Beaty). Things are about get tougher in the meager home, as they will be taking in Beatrice’s cousins Marco (Anthony DeGregorio) and Rodolpho (Brandon Pascal), who are illegally emigrating from Italy.

We know right off that a tragedy is about to unfold in front of us by way of Alfieri (Sky Paley), an Italian immigrant who has established an area law practice. He is our narrator, Greek chorus, and a participant in the events that he tells us happened years ago, events that he foresaw but was powerless to stop.

The tragic events concern Eddie’s ambivalent relationship with Catherine. They adore each other, but on his end there is a tension between his consciously regarding the 17-year-old as if she were a preteen, while unconsciously desiring the woman she is becoming. So when she enters into a romance with Rodolpho, his increasingly desperate machinations to sabotage it lead all of their lives into darkness.

The entire cast is excellent, but the domestic dynamic between Eddie, Beatrice, and Catherine is worthy of particular note. Nathan has the flashiest role, and he is stellar, but it’s when the trio are together that everyone shines most, interacting bodily and talking over each other the way you do when you build an everyday rapport.

Paley, too, should be singled out. The role of Alfieri may be fittingly one-note—he’s both outside the storm when the events and removed from them by time when addressing the audience—but Paley imbues him with the subtle feeling of a man haunted by his having been an impotent witness to tragedy, as well as moving with perfect smoothness between character and narrator.

Cal Rep’s take on A View from the Bridge is minimalist, with the composed almost entirely of Lindsay Maiorano’s split-level, stony edifice, which dominates the stage and actors like an implacable fate. It’s a powerful choice, rendered all the more effective by Kelsey McGill’s shadowy lighting design and Christopher Renfro’s ominous audio track, which rumbles in the background like a thunderstorm stalled miles away but guaranteed eventually to move in.

With so many solid pieces in play, director Jeff Paul is set up for success, and he does not blow the opportunity, methodically marching them across the board toward checkmate. His blocking is consistently spot-on, and he perfectly regulates the onstage energy flow so that the big moments pay off spectacularly.

A View from the Bridge will never replace Death of a Salesman in the pantheon of American drama, but such regard is often more about historical happenstance than merit. As Cal Rep’s current production demonstrates, Arthur Miller does not deserve to be regarded as a one-hit wonder.

A VIEW FROM THE BRIDGE CALIFORNIA REPERTORY • THEATRE ARTS BUILDING (CSULB SOUTH CAMPUS—ENTER W CAMPUS DR OFF 7TH ST) • LONG BEACH 90840 • 562.985.5526 CALREP.ORG • WED-SAT 8PM • $14-$25 • THROUGH OCTOBER 8

(Photo credit: Keith (Kip) Polakoff)