Arthur Miller classic provides 'dream roles' for ensemble

'A View From the Bridge' at Laurie Theater through Sunday

When the Brandeis Theater Company brings Arthur Miller’s classic tale of loyalty, betrayal and revenge to the Laurie Theater stage, they’ll bring audiences on a journey.

Much like the journey the ensemble has experienced together for nearly three years.

The ensemble cast is composed of third-year MFA acting students, who have worked as a group since they began the program.

Michael Hammond will direct the production.

Sarah Elizabeth Bedard says the process of playing such dramatic dream roles has been freeing for the six stars because they’ve developed so much trust between one another.

“We’ve been able to move into this really vulnerable and scary place with each other,” Bedard says. “We’ve worked together for a long time, really intimately, and built a lot of trust. That allows us to [be willing to] fail big” in rehearsals as they honed their performances.

The story follows the Italian American Carbone family in 1950s Red Hook, Brooklyn. Eddie Carbone is a longshoreman who, along with his wife Beatrice, has taken in his orphaned niece Catherine. Soon their relationship is challenged when Beatrice’s two cousins, Marco and Rodolpho, illegally arrive from Italy, and Rodolpho begins a relationship with Catherine.

Bedard’s character, Catherine, is transitioning from girlhood to womanhood and trying to navigate what that really means. It tells a very human story, Bedard says.

“The show and our production of it really takes the audience on the journey with us,” she says. “It’s not voyeuristic. We’re in the room with the audience and we say come with us.”

Performances of “A View From the Bridge” will run from Thursday, Feb. 6 through Sunday, Feb. 9. All performances are in the Laurie Theater of the Springold Theater Center at 8 p.m., and at 2 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday. Tickets are $20 ($15 for Brandeis community and seniors, $5 for students), and can be purchased at Brandeis Tickets.