Brooklyn's Brave New World Repertory Theatre presents the American premiere of Arthur Miller’s unpublished screenplay, The Hook, adapted for the stage by Brooklyn-based writer Ron Hutchinson with UK director James Dacre and directed by Claire Beckman, co-founder and producing artistic director of BNW Rep. The immersive setting will be onboard the barge of The Waterfront Museum moored in Red Hook.
Based on true events that took place on the Red Hook docks in the late 1930's, The Hook was inspired by the real-life story of Pete Panto, a young South Brooklyn longshoreman who after leading a revolt against corrupt union leadership, mysteriously disappeared, to be found years later murdered by The Mob.
The screenplay’s backstory is rooted in controversy and delays, reaching from the corruption Miller tracked along the working waterfront in the nation’s biggest port to the rejection he faced when he refused to buckle to Columbia Pictures. When studio heads demanded the systemic corruption on the docks be attributed to Communism instead of The Mob, Miller pulled the plug, refusing to write “Red Scare” propaganda. He wrote A View From The Bridge instead.
