The Brave New World Repertory Theater is presenting the first American performance of “The Hook,” an adapted Arthur Miller screenplay set in Red Hook, Brooklyn. The production depicts the story of Marty, a longshoreman who fights against the union corruption that controlled the neighborhood’s waterfront, and is based on the life of Pete Panto, a dockworker who was allegedly murdered more than 80 years ago for standing up against the port bosses. Miller wrote the screenplay in collaboration with Elia Kazan in the 1950s, intending to make it into a movie, but the project was abandoned because the studio insisted that the union bosses be portrayed as communist. The script was shelved until the British stage designer, Patrick Connellan, discovered it in Miller’s autobiography and collaborated with a theater director and a playwright to produce it in Britain in 2015. On a visit to New York in 2019, Connellan proposed staging “The Hook” aboard a docked ship straight from Panto’s time in the Waterfront Museum. David Sharps, the owner of the ship, agreed. Hutchinson and Brave New World, which had already staged “A View From the Bridge” and “On the Waterfront” on the barge before, performed a reading of “The Hook” in 2019, but the full production was delayed due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Now, the production returns to the neighborhood in which it is set, staged aboard a docked ship straight from Panto’s time. The barge is well-suited to the production with its close ties to the neighborhood’s history since it retains fixtures from Panto’s days, such as patinated rigging blocks hanging from the ceiling and a century-old bell clanking when the barge jerks. Despite the venue’s challenges, such as the actors’ need to grab a handhold when the boat judders, the production is pared down and runs for about 1 hour and 20 minutes with no intermission. The play preserves Miller’s cinematic vision by using music, projections of historical photographs, and noir lighting. Beckman, the director, intends to draw the audience into Red Hook’s history and spread the story of Pete Panto’s fight against union greed. Primarily, she wants to honor Panto’s memory.
