A View From the Bridge

We did the matinee at Theatre in the Round after lunch at Republic this afternoon.  I did not approve of my lunch, by the way.  They snuck a mayo-based chipotle sauce into my jalapeno hash.  Unlike the profile for most Minnesotans, my issue was not the spice, but the mayo.  I hate the stuff.  If there's a whiff of it in what I'm eating, that taste overrides all the other good tastes in my food.  Nasty.  It's not as bad if it melts into the food and is dispersed, but drizzles of it all over my food...ugh.  Might as well order a bowl of mayo in my opinion.

The play was good, although I'd summarize it by saying it's the most stressful episode of All in the Family I've ever seen.  We had a good discussion in the car on the way home about what the lawyer/narrator meant by settling for half as much.  My opinion, and maybe I'm way off, is that he respects something in Eddie because Eddie is the stereotypical tragic character.  You look at Eddie and his actions, and he screams Shakespearean conflicted protagonist.  There's a purity to his actions and his singular focus, even if that singular focus is way, way fucking wrong.  It's a short hop to thinking it's chivalrous love from where he stands.  But even in that respect, it's perverted and messed up and drives him down paths he shouldn't go.  It's flawed.  And he ends up dead in the end for his flaws, just like a tragic hero.  So the narrator is saying you feel like you're looking at someone who should be that hero, full of emotion and singular purpose, and who is so large.  And you should just get that out of your mind, because in a real world, with real people, and real repercussions, half is sufficient and maybe better off for everyone around you.

Aidan Jhane Gallivan was very good as Catherine.  We saw her in Fahrenheit 451 last season.  Michael Eagan made me so uncomfortable as Eddie that I can't help but congratulate him. I squirmed a bit in my seat.  I was not as taken with the Rodolpho character - it was the interpretation of him as having a wavering, quiet voice that bothered me.  I think it was to make you think extra hard about whether he was or was not gay and whether he was really using Catherine for her citizenship, but I think it could have been done another way.  Overall, an excellent production, although I still prefer The Crucible (which I last re-read as part of an ethics in science course in 1987).