NY Review: THE RIVER
By Toby Zinman
For the Inquirer
My first thought as I sit down to write this is that I need to see this play again. And not only because it's deliberately ambiguous but also because it's great theater: great writing, great acting, great production.
Jez Butterworth, the author of the astounding success, Jerusalem, wrote The River in 2012, where it became a major event in London, starring Dominic West. The River, the playwright declares, is the "hardest play I've ever written." The New York production stars Hugh Jackman who declares the role "the most exciting thing I've ever done"--this from Wolverine, this from Jean Valjean.
This intimate play demands radical quiet from the audience and gets it; there are long stretches with no dialogue while somebody lights candles or opens a bottle of wine or prepares a fish for cooking. And there are long monologues about catching fish, about childhood memories that seem both beautiful and somehow dire. Butterworth's language is sometimes poetic— the Yeats poem, "The Song of the Wandering Aengus" included in the program may provide the best gloss on the play—and specific: a box is wrapped not just in a handkerchief, not just in a green handkerchief, but in a "bottle green handkerchief." But mostly, the dialogue is naturalistic and sometimes funny, making the tense excitement it creates surprising. Jackman's performance is both commanding and modest; no star turns here but acting, seemingly raw but highly polished, that rivets our attention.
The basic plot seems to be a romance: The Man has invited The Woman (Cush Jumbo) to his cabin in the woods; he is obsessed with trout fishing, and on this dark night, when there is no moon, the trout are running. He persuades her to come to the river, loses her in the dark, returns frantic to the cabin to call the police, only to have The Woman walk in the door. But wait; it's not the same woman (Laura Donnelly).
And that's all I can tell you about the plot without spoiling the reveals; it grows more suggestive as it accumulates mysterious objects and mysterious sightings. Ian Rickson who directed in London as well, used the odd stage space and even odder events without crossing any boundary into the deliberately spooky: it all remains entirely plausible.
The superb set designed by Ultz suggests both cozy warmth and unnerving isolation, effects supported by Ian Dickinson's sound design (is it raining? Is the river so nearby? Is the sudden silence significant?).
All this contributes to the narrative allure of myth: a bowl of self-reflecting water and the resonant line, "I have no choice," give us something bigger and more powerful than mere psychology.
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Circle on the Square Theatre, 50th St. & Broadway. Through Jan.25. Tickets $35-175. Information: 212-239-6200 or telecharge.com