Arthur Miller’s “A View From the Bridge” is about an uncle with a passionate obsession with his niece, a jealous but caring aunt and two immigrants from Italy. And Castleton State College students were amazing in making Miller’s play come to life.
Eddie Carbone (Robert Valenti), plays a dramatic, lost uncle to niece Catherine (Hayley Ryan).
How he came to raise Catherine is never really explained, but as she becomes a woman he struggles to let her go, through an unfortunate series of events.
When Italian cousins of wife Beatrice, come to stay with them in their apartment in New York, all hell breaks loose.
Marco (Max Walker), is a hard-worker looking for a job to send money back to his wife and sick children in Italy while his brother, Rodolpho (Michael Tuffy), is simply looking to find his American dream in the city of big lights.
Rodolpho and Catherine fall in love and plan to get married; Uncle Eddie is less than pleased.
Uncle Eddie repeatedly tries to separate the two, to no avail.
He contacts a lawyer and family friend, Alfieri (Benjamin Villa), to discuss options about ending the romance between Catherine and Rodolpho. Alfieri advises him to just accept that she is a grown woman, wish her well and let her go.
Eddie can’t accept this as a solution.
He eventually makes the decision to contact the immigration police and rat on his wife’s two cousins.
In the dramatic fallout of these actions, a fight breaks out between Eddie and Marco where Marco publicly humiliates Eddie by calling him a rat and defacing his name.
Marco and Rodolpho are taken away by immigration after the fight. Rodolpho is going to marry Catherine and become an American citizen, but Marco will have to stay in jail until his court date, after  which he will then be sent back to Italy.
Alfieri convinces him to promise that he will not harm the uncle if the lawyer posts bail, allowing him to work for the four or five weeks until the court date.
In the closing scene, Marco lets his emotions get the best of him; while Eddie lets his pride and machismo get the best of him. Marco goes after Eddie and Eddie pulls a knife. Through the brawl Eddie is stabbed with his own knife, at the hand of Marco.
This play brings up issues of homosexuality, women’s roles and masculinity during the time period. The story unfolds in fantastic twists and turns.
“It was amazing. I thought Kelly was especially amazing,” said Ingrid Johnston-Robledo, associate academic dean.
The director of the play, Harry McEnerny was especially pleased with the students acting abilities throughout the four-day performance.
“It’s interesting watching the play progress,” said McEnerney. “I couldn’t be more proud. I think the cast is very solid all across.”
More Soundings students were in attendance the first night of the play, but some saved it for the weekend.
“I love it! I’m going to reference the Soundings question which was ‘which person do you sympathize with.’ I said Marco,” said Chelsea Carey. “Marco didn’t do anything to deserve what happened to him except get between Eddie and Rodolpho.”
The amount of work that went into this performance definitely showed in the stage, props and acting.
“It was a lot of work, my first role as a biggish character. A lot of work, a lot of time; I mean it’s awesome. I think it’s a great show!” said Michael Tuffy (Rodolpho) after the show.