A View from the Bridge
First edition cover
Written by	Arthur Miller
Date premiered	September 29, 1955
Place premiered	Coronet Theatre (nowEugene O'Neill Theatre) New York City
Original language	English
Setting	The apartment and environment of Eddie Carbone

A View from the Bridge is aplay by American playwrightArthur Miller. It was first staged on September 29, 1955, as aone-actverse drama withA Memory of Two Mondays at theCoronet Theatre onBroadway. The run was unsuccessful, and Miller subsequently revised and extended^[1] the play to contain two acts; this version is the one with which audiences are most familiar.^[2] The two-act version premiered in theNew Watergate theatre club inLondon's West End under the direction ofPeter Brook on October 11, 1956.

The play is set in 1950s America, in an Italian-American neighborhood near theBrooklyn Bridge in New York.^[3] It employs achorus and narrator in the character of Alfieri. Eddie, thetragicprotagonist, has an improper love for, and almost an obsession with, Catherine, his wife Beatrice's orphaned niece, so he does not approve of her courtship of Beatrice's cousin Rodolpho. Miller's interest in writing about the world of theNew York docks originated with an unproduced screenplay that he developed withElia Kazan in the early 1950s (titledThe Hook) that addressed corruption on the Brooklyn docks. Kazan later directedOn the Waterfront, which dealt with the same subject.

The action is narrated by Alfieri, who was raised in 1900s Italy but is now working as an American lawyer, thereby representing the "Bridge" between the two cultures.

In the opening speech, Alfieri describes the violent history of the small Brooklyn community ofRed Hook and tells us that the second-generationSicilians are now more civilized, more American, and are prepared to "settle for half" and let the law handle their disputes. But there are exceptions, and he then begins to narrate the story of Eddie Carbone, an Italian Americanlongshoreman who lives with his wife Beatrice and her orphaned niece Catherine.

Eddie is a good man who, although ostensibly protective and fatherly towards Catherine, harbors a growing passion for her as she approaches her 18th birthday. We learn that he has not had sex with his wife for nearly three months. Catherine is studying to become astenographer and Eddie objects to her taking a job she has been offered until she finishes her coursework, expressing a dislike for the way she dresses and the interest she is beginning to show in men. Beatrice is more supportive of Catherine's ventures and persuades Eddie to let her take the job.

Eddie returns home one afternoon with the news that Beatrice's two cousins, brothers Marco and Rodolpho, have safely arrived in New York as illegal immigrants. He has agreed to house them saying that he is honored to be able to help family. Marco is quiet and thoughtful, possessing remarkable strength, whereas Rodolpho is more unconventional, with plans to make a career singing in America. Marco has a family starving in Italy and plans to return after working illegally for several years, whereas Rodolpho intends to stay. Although Eddie, Beatrice, and Catherine are at first excellent hosts, cracks appear when Rodolpho and Catherine begin dating.

Eddie convinces himself that Rodolpho ishomosexual and is only expressing interest in Catherine so he can marry her and gain status as a legal citizen. He confronts Catherine with his beliefs and she turns to Beatrice for advice. Beatrice, starting to realize Eddie's true feelings, tells her that she should marry Rodolpho and move out. In the meantime, Eddie turns to Alfieri, hoping for help from the law. However, Alfieri tells him that the only recourse he has is to report Rodolpho and Marco as undocumented. Seeing no solution to his problem, Eddie becomes increasingly desperate and takes his anger out on Rodolpho and, in teaching him to box, "accidentally" injures him. Marco reacts by quietly threatening Eddie, showing his strength by holding a heavy chair above Eddie's head with one hand and "smiling with triumph".

A few months have passed and Eddie reaches a breaking point when he discovers that Catherine and Rodolpho have slept together and are intent on marrying. Drunk, he kisses Catherine and then attempts to prove that Rodolpho is gay by suddenly and passionately kissing him. After a violent confrontation, Eddie orders Rodolpho to leave the apartment.

Eddie visits Alfieri and insists that the kiss has proved Rodolpho is gay and that he is only marrying Catherine for citizenship, but once again Alfieri says the law cannot help. Out of desperation, Eddie phones immigration services but in the meantime, Beatrice has arranged for Marco and Rodolpho to move in with two other undocumented immigrants in the flat above. Eddie learns that Catherine and Rodolpho have arranged to marry within a week and about the two new immigrants that have moved into the building and, with both anger and fright, frantically urges Catherine and Beatrice to move them out. When immigration officials arrive and arrest Marco, Rodolpho, and the two other immigrants, Eddie pretends that the arrest comes as a complete surprise to him, but Beatrice and Marco see through this. Marco spits in Eddie's face in front of everyone and accuses Eddie of killing his starving children. Eddie tries to convince the neighborhood of his innocence but they turn away from him.

Alfieri visits Marco and Rodolpho in custody, obtaining their release onbail until their hearing comes up. Alfieri explains that Rodolpho will be able to stay once he has married Catherine but warns Marco that he will have to return to Italy. Vengeful, Marco confronts Eddie publicly on his release, and Eddie turns on him with a knife, demanding that he take back his accusations and restore his honor. In the ensuing scuffle, Eddie is stabbed with his own knife by Marco and dies, as his stunned family and neighbors stand around.

When he witnesses Eddie's death, Alfieri trembles because he realizes that, even though it was wrong, something "perversely pure" calls to him and he is filled with admiration. But, he tells the audience, settling for half-measures is better, it must be, and so he mourns Eddie with a sense of alarm at his own feelings.

Notable casts

Characters

• Eddie Carbone - Alongshoreman who is married to Beatrice while pining for his wife's niece Catherine.
• Beatrice - The warm and caring wife of Eddie Carbone and aunt of Catherine.
• Catherine - Catherine is a beautiful, smart, young Italian-American girl who is very popular among the boys in the community.
• Alfieri - An Italian-American lawyer. Alfieri is the narrator of the story.
• Marco - Marco is a hard-working Italian cousin to Beatrice. He is a powerful, sympathetic leader.
• Rodolpho - Beatrice's young, blonde cousin from Italy. Rodolpho prefers singing jazz to working on the ships. He cooks, sews, and loves to dance.
• Louis - A longshoreman and friend of Eddie's. Louis hangs out with Mike outside Eddie's home.
• Mike - A longshoreman and friend of Eddie's. Mike is often seen with Louis outside the Carbone home.
• Tony - A friend of the Carbones. He assists Marco and Rodolpho off the ship and brings them safely to Beatrice's home.
• Two Immigration Officers - Two officers from theImmigration Bureau who come to look for Marco and Rodolpho at Eddie's request.

Theone-act,verse version ofA View from the Bridge opened on Broadway on September 29, 1955, at the Coronet Theatre (now theEugene O'Neill Theatre);Marilyn Monroe was in the audience.^[4] It ran for 149 performances. This production was directed byMartin Ritt and the cast includedVan Heflin as Eddie andEileen Heckart as Beatrice.^[5]

Its two-act version premiered inLondon's West End under the direction ofPeter Brook. It opened at theNew Watergate theatre club (currently Harold Pinter Theatre) on October 11, 1956, and the cast includedRichard Harris as Louis andAnthony Quayle as Eddie,^[6] with lighting design byLee Watson.

Dustin Hoffman acted as assistant director and stage manager for a successful 1965 production of the playOff-Broadway at theSheridan Square Playhouse in New York City. The play's director, Ulu Grosbard, suggested to Arthur Miller that Hoffman would one day make a greatWilly Loman (a role that Hoffman would later play to great acclaim). Miller was unimpressed and later wrote "My estimate of Grosbard all but collapsed as, observing Dustin Hoffman's awkwardness and his big nose that never seemed to get unstuffy, I wondered how the poor fellow imagined himself a candidate for any kind of acting career."^[7]

Another production in New York opened on February 3, 1983, at theAmbassador Theatre, withTony Lo Bianco as Eddie and directed byArvin Brown. It ran for 149 performances.^[5]

An award-winning production in New York opened on December 14, 1997, at the Criterion Center Stage Right and subsequently transferred to theNeil Simon Theatre. It ran for 239 performances. It was directed byMichael Mayer and the cast includedAnthony LaPaglia,Allison Janney, andBrittany Murphy.^[5][8] The production won theTony Award for:Best Revival of a Play;Best Leading Actor in a Play (LaPaglia); it also wonDrama Desk Awards forOutstanding Revival,Outstanding Featured Actress in a Play (Janney), and Outstanding Direction of a Play.

A revival at theCort Theatre on Broadway in 2009 starredLiev Schreiber,Scarlett Johansson andJessica Hecht. The limited, 14-week engagement, directed byGregory Mosher, began with previews on December 28, 2009, and officially opened on January 24, 2010. It ran until April 4, 2010.^[5][8][9] Johansson won a Tony Award for her performance.

From October 2015 through February 2016, a production of the play that originated at theYoung Vic Theatre in Londonin 2014 ran on Broadway at theLyceum Theatre featuring its original London cast.^[10] It won the Tony Award for Best Revival of a Play; the director,Ivo van Hove won theTony Award for Best Direction of a Play.

TheNational Theatre of Great Britain staged a production in 1987 at theCottesloe Theatre. It was directed byAlan Ayckbourn andMichael Gambon gave an acclaimed performance as Eddie.Time Out called the production "near perfect" and theNew Statesman called it "one of the finest events to be presented at the National Theatre since it moved to the South Bank."^[11]

Another West End production was staged at theDuke of York's Theatre, opening in previews on January 24, 2009, and officially on February 5. It ran until May 16, 2009. It was directed byLindsay Posner, withKen Stott as Eddie,Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio as Beatrice,Hayley Atwell as Catherine andHarry Lloyd as Rodolpho.^[12]

In 2014, Belgian directorIvo van Hove and lead actorsMark Strong (as Eddie),Phoebe Fox (Catherine), andNicola Walker (Beatrice) revived the play to huge success at theYoung Vic.^[13] This revival won threeLaurence Olivier Awards in April 2015, for Best Actor (Mark Strong), Best Revival, and Best Director (Ivo van Hove). The Young Vic production transferred to Broadway with its British cast intact.^[14]

In 2024,Lindsay Posner directedDominic West as Eddie andKate Fleetwood as Beatrice.Callum Scott Howells plays the role of Rodolpho. This production began atTheatre Royal Bath Ustinov Studio, before transferring to theTheatre Royal Haymarket.^[15]

In 1992, theRoyal Exchange, Manchester staged a production directed byGreg Hersov with Jonathan Hackett,Michael Sheen and Kate Byers,^{[citation needed]} the same year that the Royal Theatre Northampton produced an acclaimed production directed by Michael Napier-Brown, designed by Ray Lett and a cast featuring David Hargreaves (Eddie), Kathrine Schlesinger, Nicola Scott, Richard Harradine, Colin Atkins and Duncan Law.

After the Ivo van Hove 2015 production closed on Broadway, it was restaged by the Centre Theatre Group of Los Angeles with a new cast that includedFrederick Weller (Eddie), Andrus Nichols (Beatrice), Catherine Combs (Catherine), Alex Esola (Marco), and David Register (Rodolpho); this cast then toured to theKennedy Center in Washington.^[16][17] In 2017, van Hove directed the play at theGoodman Theatre in Chicago. Combs and Nichols reprised their roles, joined by Ian Bedford as Eddie.^[18][19]In 2023 theChichester Festival Theatre staged a production withJonathan Slinger as Eddie, Nancy Crane as Alfieri, Kirsty Bushell as Beatrice, Rachelle Diedericks as Catherine, andLuke Newberry as Rodolpho.

Italian film directorLuchino Visconti directed a stage version of the play in Italy in 1958. The plot of his filmRocco and His Brothers (Rocco e i suoi fratelli), made in 1960, has many affinities withA View from the Bridge.^[20]

A French-Italian filmA View from the Bridge was released in February 1962. Directed bySidney Lumet, the film starredRaf Vallone andMaureen Stapleton as Eddie and Beatrice, withCarol Lawrence as Catherine.^{[citation needed]} The film was the first time that a kiss between men was shown on screen in America, albeit in this case it is intended as an accusation of being gay, rather than a romantic expression.^[21] In a major change to the plot of the play, Eddie commits suicide after being publicly beaten by Marco.

On 4 April 1966, ITV airedA View from the Bridge as its ITV Play of the Week, of which no copies survive. Vallone also played Eddie in this version.

In 1986, the BBC aired a TV dramatisation of the play produced by Geoff Wilson.

Renzo Rossellini, the brother of film directorRoberto Rossellini, was the first to adapt the play into an opera with hisUno sguardo dal ponte, which premiered at theTeatro dell'Opera di Roma in 1961.

In 1999, another operatic version, with music byWilliam Bolcom and alibretto byArthur Miller, premiered atLyric Opera of Chicago starring Kim Josephson as Eddie Carbone. The work was performed subsequently at theMetropolitan Opera in 2002, again at theWashington National Opera in 2007, and by Vertical Player Repertory Opera in 2009, starring William Browning as Eddie.^[22] The opera was first performed in Europe atTheater Hagen in 2003 in German translation. The first English (original) language version produced in Europe opened at the Teatro dell'Opera di Roma in Rome on January 18, 2011.

L.A. Theatre Works released a radio adaptation of the play in 1998 featuringEd O'Neill.

BBC Radio 3 produced a radio adaptation starringAlfred Molina, which was first broadcast on October 18, 2015, and then again on May 14, 2017. For his work on the production, Molina was awarded theBBC Audio Drama Award for Best Actor.^[23]

• Miller, Arthur (1955).A View from the Bridge: Two One-Act Plays (1st ed.). New York:Viking Press.OCLC 26621266.

Wikimedia Commons has media related toA View from the Bridge.

• ​A View from the Bridge​ at theInternet Broadway Database
• ​A View from the Bridge​ at theInternet Off-Broadway Database (archived)
• A View from the Bridge fromSparkNotes
• Studying Arthur Miller'sA View from the Bridge from eriding.net
• A View from the Bridge study guide, themes, quotes, teacher resources from shmoop.com

• Plays by Arthur Miller
• Broadway plays
• West End plays
• Off-Broadway plays
• 1955 plays
• Drama Desk Award–winning plays
• Tony Award–winning plays
• Viking Press books
• Brooklyn in fiction
• Plays set in the 1950s
• Plays set in New York City
• American plays adapted into films

• Webarchive template wayback links
• Articles with short description
• Short description is different from Wikidata
• Use American English from November 2020
• All Wikipedia articles written in American English
• Use mdy dates from November 2020
• All articles with unsourced statements
• Articles with unsourced statements from February 2019
• Articles with unsourced statements from June 2024
• Commons category link is on Wikidata