Arthur Miller’s A View from the Bridge at Chichester Festival Theatre from October 6-Saturday, October 28.
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00:00 Good morning, my name is Phil Hewitt, Group Arts Editor at Sussex Newspapers. Now the
00:06 last production in the main house, summer season in Chichester Festival Theatre is A
00:11 View from the Bridge, Arthur Miller and Nancy Crane. You are in the production. Now, we
00:17 really don't see much Arthur Miller in Chichester. What have we got in store for us?
00:22 Well, it's, I decided I don't want to put anyone off. Kind of Greek tragedy, but not
00:30 set in Greece, set in Brooklyn, set in even a smaller enclave of Brooklyn, Red Hook, which
00:39 was sort of the longshoreman, it was, it's the, you know, on the waterfront. And in fact,
00:44 Arthur Miller worked, was writing on the film on the waterfront and then fell out with all
00:50 the creatives because actually of the communist witch hunt in the 50s. And so he went off
00:56 and he wrote A View from the Bridge. And that's what this is.
01:01 And this is a piece that says really interesting things about immigration, doesn't it?
01:06 It does. It's, and I think it's about, it's interesting, also about immigrants on immigration,
01:14 because I think there's a sense that everyone is either a first or second generation, is
01:22 really either an immigrant or a first generation immigrant. And the changes, because the character
01:28 I'm playing, Al Fieri, who's sort of the Greek chorus narrator, the lawyer, you know, she
01:36 has a line where she says, you know, talks about the blood feuds and things in Sicily,
01:41 but says now we are quite civilised, we're quite American, you know, don't worry, we
01:46 settle for half. And I think that's her view that we're not quite as hot blooded as we
01:50 used to be. But, you know, kind of toeing the line here. But then the famous last words,
01:56 it goes, gets very bloody.
01:59 And you say quite American, I made the mistake just now asking you as an American, do you
02:04 have a greater understanding or a different understanding of Arthur Miller than we do
02:08 here? But you made the point that you are a laid back Californian, have a nice day Californian,
02:13 and Arthur Miller is anything but.
02:15 No, and I think he's sort of, I think in many ways, he's kind of wrestling with himself
02:22 in the plays. So he is not a laid back Californian or anything else. But I think he's also wrestling
02:32 with himself about how you live a good life and an ethical life in this world.