Eddie (Gavin Rutherford) seated in the foreground. Rodolpho (Paul Waggott) and Catherine (Acushla-Tara Sutton) standing in the background.

Eddie and his wife Beatrice live with Beatrice’s dead-sister’s daughter, Catherine in Brooklyn, New York. Beatrice’s two cousins, Marco and Rodolpho, are coming into the country (illegally) to stay with them in order to earn money to send back to Italy.  Catherine and Rodolpho get on really well. Eddie is suspicious of Rodolpho’s motives. Is he really into Catherine? Or is he just after a green-card?

Susan Wilson directs a cracking production of Arthur Miller’s A view from the bridge. Excellent performances from Gavin Rutherford (Eddie) and Acushla-Tara Sutton (Catherine) gives the show a strong centre for the other characters to move around. Rutherford plays the patriarch Eddie as a strong, blunt, straight talking man. His agitation is palpable as Eddie’s desperate attempts to protect his step-daughter lead him to a lawyer. Sutton is sweetly naive as Catherine when establishing her relationship to Eddie and Beatrice. They are strongly supported by the other cast members. Jude Gibson is a loving and slightly envious wife. Paul Waggott is subtly confrontational as Rodolpho, while Alex Greig as Marco is charmingly stoic. Christopher Brougham’s lawyer Alfieri sets the scene and closes the play. He gives us a sense that something terrible, yet inevitable is going to happen. It’s pretty good to see students from Whitireia on the stage in this professional production as well. They will be learning a lot from this experienced cast and crew while wandering around John Hodgkins’ marvelous multi-level set which is nicely lit by Marcus McShane.

Go and see this classic American play.