It’s Miller time once more for SCR’s Benson

Tom Titus

When it comes to plays by recently departed Arthur Miller, few local

directors have a resume to match Martin Benson’s at South Coast

Repertory.

Benson has staged Miller’s masterwork, “Death of a Salesman,”

twice, and also has put “All My Sons” and “The Crucible” on the

Repertory boards. Next weekend, he’ll reveal his fourth Miller show,

“A View From the Bridge,” on the theater’s Segerstrom Stage.

“I remember having heated discussions in school about whether or

not tragedy can exist if it’s not happening to a king,” Benson said.

“And my first instinctive reaction was that even if the guy’s a

butcher, it’s still a tragedy to him.”

In “A View From the Bridge,” the central character of Eddie

Carbone -- to be played by South Coast Repertory veteran and founding

artist Richard Doyle -- never would be mistaken for royalty. He’s a

dockworker, with an unhealthy attachment to his niece, and he becomes

furious when she takes a shine to one of two Italian immigrants who

move under the Carbone roof in a cramped Brooklyn apartment.

“The whole idea that characters have to be elevated to some lofty,

near-divine level in the world for tragedy to take place is just

plain nonsense,” the director declared. “‘View From the Bridge’ is a

perfect example.

“Miller’s first version of ‘View’ was written in blank verse,

which you can tell because much of the language -- especially [the

lawyer] Alfieri’s -- is still very poetic. The dialogue is just

brilliantly written in argot of the people, with its street slang and

curiously bad construction.

“Miller has his characters speaking in double negatives and

breaking all the rules of sentence structure, but he does it in such

a lovely way. It’s beautiful.”

“A View From the Bridge” was written in the mid-1950s, and Benson

believes South Coast Repertory audiences will need to overcome their

2005 sensibilities, because “the Italy of today bears little

resemblance to the desperate, poverty-ravaged place it was following

World War II.

“Remember, there was intense fighting in Italy from 1942 to ‘45,”

he said. “Three long years of relentless, brutal warfare. First, it

was conquered by Mussolini, then the Allies attacked, coming through

Sicily. Then the Germans moved in to prop up Mussonlini after the

Italian army collapsed and when they retreated, they burned whatever

they could to keep it out of Allied hands. Then we blew up everything

in our path as we moved forward. The country was devastated, and

America must have truly seemed like the Promised Land.”

It is against this back-story that Miller’s “Bridge” plays out

near the New York waterfront, in the shadow of the Brooklyn Bridge,

with suppressed violence constantly prevalent. Add to this the

traditional Italian quickness on the trigger, figuratively and

literally, and the stage is set for a powder keg of conflict.

Joining Doyle in the cast are Daisy Eagan as the young Catherine;

Elizabeth Ruscio as Eddie’s wife, Beatrice; David Barry Gray and

Anthony Cistaro as the young Italian “submarines;” and another South

Coast Repertory founding artist, Hal Landon Jr., as Alfieri.

“A View From the Bridge” opens May 28 following a week of previews

and will be staged through June 26 in the South Coast Repertory

theater, 550 Town Center Drive, Costa Mesa. Tickets may be ordered by

calling the box office at (714) 708-5555.

* TOM TITUS reviews local theater for the Daily Pilot. His reviews

appear Fridays.