Review: Apollinaire Theatre's A VIEW FROM THE BRIDGE

Some of playwright Arthur Miller’s most enduring works are tragedies revolving around troubled middle-aged men and their knowing, loyal wives.

These include morally bankrupt businessman Joe Keller and his wife Kate in “All My Sons,” the beleaguered Willy and Linda Loman in “Death of a Salesman” – set for its sixth Broadway revival this spring in a production starring Nathan Lane and Laurie Metcalf – and Eddie and Beatrice Carbone in “A View from the Bridge,” now being given a topflight production by Apollinaire Theatre Company through March 23 at Chelsea Theater Works.

The often fraught proceedings are tethered to the compelling performances of Jorge Rubio as Eddie, a role originated on Broadway by Van Heflin, and Sehnaz Dirik – artistic director of Theater Uncorked and an Elliot Norton Award winner for the role of Martha in the company’s 2023 production of  “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” – as Beatrice, a role first played in 1955 on Broadway by Eileen Heckart and later in the 1962 film adaptation by Maureen Stapleton. Rubio and Dirik make auspicious Apollinaire debuts, as does Rohan Misra as Marco.

Miller is widely considered to be one of the towering playwrights of the 20th century – in a league with Eugene O’Neill, Tennessee Williams, and Edward Albee – and his dramas remain as impactful today as ever, as Apollinaire’s stunningly well-done “A View from the Bridge” allows audiences to see just why some 70 years after it was written.

As the pugnacious Eddie, a man who does daily battle with his own demons, Rubio simmers with a scary mix of anger and sexual frustration. He fends off stalwart spouse Beatrice, struggles to hide his lust for his wife’s 17-year-old niece Catherine, and deals with the growing anger he feels for her handsome young suitor, the aspiring singer Rodolpho. All the while, Beatrice – who wonders aloud where their sex life has gone – tends to the house without ever taking her eyes off Eddie. When he repays her love and loyalty with abuse, Dirik makes her character’s heartbreak movingly intense.

Set in the mid-1950s in the rough-and-tumble Italian-American neighborhood of Red Hook in the shadow of the Brooklyn Bridge, the story is centered on dock worker Eddie, who has an unsavory interest in the kind Catherine (Naomi Kim), his wife Beatrice’s orphaned niece Eddie disapproves of Catherine’s burgeoning relationship with Rodolpho (Andrés Molano Sotomayor), one of two of Beatrice’s cousins, both undocumented immigrants from Italy who are staying with the Carbones, and, when Catherine and Rodolpho fall in love, Eddie’s jealousy boils over.

Sotomayor is appealing as the young inamorato, though it’s only at the top of the second act that he locks in on the character, bringing out qualities in Rodolpho not obvious in his earlier scenes. As older brother Marco – who depends on Eddie’s kindness and generosity while barely being able to tolerate the rough-hewn man – Misra keeps Marco’s rage under tight control, at least up to a point, maintaining Marco’s quiet intensity even as his disgust with Eddie intensifies.. Misra adds considerable presence through a tightness and stoic facial expression that show him to be the better man even when his fury is stoked by Eddie’s merciless taunting.

Originally written as a one-act verse drama, Milller’s ultimately better-known two-act version being presented in Chelsea includes the character of Alfieri, an older lawyer and the show’s narrator, played here with leavened authority by Dev Luthra.

Three-time Elliot Norton Award winner David R. Gammons directs the play with respect for its time and place, while also adding moments of contemporary relevance surrounding the many layers of the immigrant experience and the price often extracted from those aspiring to achieve the American dream. Gammons’ use of immigration officers dressed in ICE-evoking modern-day combat attire, complete with face masks, is both jarring and very effective.

Scenic and sound designer Joseph Lark-Riley has created a realistic-looking pier that also serves as the Carbone home, the streets, and a lawyer’s office, all cleverly outfitted with props – including an array of vintage Steelcase office chairs and desks – by Parker Jennings. Lark-Riley’s sound design also sets the period, wafting 1940s and ’50s music through the proceedings and pulling it forward when needed as if it were being played on the portable record player on the set.

The music may be familiar only to audience members of a certain age, but people of all ages will connect with the play’s still relevant themes.