A View From The Bridge

Anna Sokolova
Aug 13
4 min read

New Theatre Sydney, 5 August - 5 September 2026

The review

A View from the Bridge is set in seaside of Brooklyn, outskirts of New York, how they called it, in the 1950s. This is a story about an Italian-American family, Eddie (Alex Bryant-Smith) and Beatrice (Megan-Elizabeth Kennedy), and their orphaned 17-years old niece Catherine (Georgia Da Silva), offering a shelter for two young men Rudolfo (Finn Couzner) and Marco (Jonathon Nicola), cousins, who illegally arrived in the country from a poor village in Italy, in an attempt to get a job and save and send money home.

A two-level transformable scaffold-looking wooden structure is erected on the stage. In turn, it becomes a house, a common yard, or a living room in a small apartment. There is a lot of space, cleverly shaped by wooden planks, smartly lightened up making space empty or when needed, cozy. The sound disquieted underlined a powerful flow of emotions, varying from light dancing rhythms to the anxious sounds of cellos. The set is transparent but solid, and the entire show leaves the same feel.

The story is told in retrospect by a woman lawyer, Alfieri (Elena Pavli). Also Italian by blood, she is long time local in this messy, colourful area, where the law - somewhat close to that in Sicily, at time was taken as a recommended set of rules to be followed optionally. Or it could be worse. The case Alfieri recalls in one of the seldom when one desperately seeks a law to stop a clandestine drama from unfolding, but there is none.

It is a show made following the best traditions of the psychological theatre, where manners, accents, outfits and even real-life inheritance of several actors are chosen to match the original. That is a strength and a tripping point of this work. Alfieri is strengthening the premonition with each of her monologues. With that, while the female cast along with Couzner and Nicola are genuine and light on their feet in their performances, the American male counterpart is at times too elaborate. There is thick ominousness in the air, no need to highlight the theatrics with tight poses and studiedly tight facial expressions.

Eddie is an American longshoreman, as many in his neighborhood, by birth, speech, manners and appearance. Dense, he takes space, he is an owner of his place and a definitive member of the local community. Beer and bowling with friends or time spent with his niece, the apple of his eye, Catherine, are his typical evenings. His wife Beatrice, a tiny woman with a deep voice and big heart. Conversation after conversation it shows how loving and loyal she is, subtly and persistently able to confront and often convince his typical hosty, authoritative, solid husband. The family is surrounded by neighbours, eyes and ears are everywhere - the cast of this production is large.

Catherine, once Eddie’s little girl, instantly attracted by charming, different, touch feminine compared with heavy port workers, Rudolfo brings her uncle an unendurable pain of sensing inevitable separation. Rudolfo is not looking serious but certainly is fun, warm and entertaining, he is not convincing as a right choice for Catherine, until the drama strikes. Not having time to speak much anymore, losing his gay mood and lightness, he flows from scene to scene, holding and supporting Catherine quietly, proving that he indeed is a decent choice. His softness contrasts out the uselessness of hate, enhancing anticipation of lack of possible resolution.

Marco is a small person compared to each American in the neighbourhood. He is a hard worker speaking broken English, busy with saving money for his wife and children, caught whirled up into a drama which is not his. Deeply insulted by Eddie, who lives engulfed by fury, Marco now is boiled with vendetta to pay back for an unforgivable assault, he suddenly becomes a firm, dangerous figure. No bluff, no talk, but steel determination in pursuing a contrived decision.

There is a quote which goes as “No question is settled unless it is settled right”. This work is a compelling scrutiny of a full path travelled by a man, strong as an old oak, pressured by a personal codex of honor. Alex Bryant-Smith brings up a controlling, solid patriarch, who exhaustingly fights what is wrong by his unwritten rules, cracks hearing “there is nothing you can do; let it go, Eddie” and then crashes shockingly thunderously proving that at some point there is no matter what the cost of the “right”.