Canberra REP’s next production opening tonight at Theatre 3 is Arthur Miller’s “A View from the Bridge”.

This is Baldock’s first directorial role with REP for Chris Baldock, who directed “All The Rage” for last year’s Short+Sweet Festival, winning Best Production, Director, Actor and People’s Choice.

Baldock, who is now co-director at the National Acting School in Canberra, originally hails from New Zealand but spent many years in Melbourne where he had garnered a high reputation as an independent director. He has assembled a crack team to bring the Miller play to life.

“A View from the Bridge” began life in 1955 as a one act tragedy about a Sicilian family, the Carboni’s, living on the docks in Brooklyn. By 1956 he had expanded to two acts, the form in which it is normally played now.

The 1950s play is surprisingly up-to-date, dealing as it does with questions of immigration and sexual orientation, set in Miller’s favourite context, that of the American family.

Miller’s idea was to write a Greek tragedy. And his chief character, Eddie Carbone, is like many Greek tragic heroes, both protagonist and antagonist in one, of whom the playwright wrote: “Eddie Carbone is still not a man to weep over … But it is more possible now to relate his actions to our own and thus to ourselves a little better, not only as isolated psychological entities, but as we connect to our fellows and our long past together.”

“A View from the Bridge”. Theatre 3, 3 Repertory Lane, Acton, until May 20. Bookings to canberrarep.org.au or 6257 1950.

 

News all day, every day at CityNews.com.au.