Review: The River at The Drama Theatre Sydney Theatre Company

Review by Nola Bartolo

The River at Sydney Theatre Company, playing at the Drama Theatre in the Sydney Opera House, is an atmospheric and intimate piece that lingers long after the curtain falls. Written by Jez Butterworth, an acclaimed English playwright, it unfolds like poetry tucked inside a puzzle box.

A bare set. A remote cabin by the river. A man who loves, or perhaps love is not a strong enough word to portray this man’s obsession with catching trout. “What is the difference between a trout and a sea trout?” One of the many questions asked in this play. Perhaps the only one truly answered. Nothing.

On a once in a year moonless night, a fisherman has taken a woman, his lover to his family cabin on the cliffs, where he has spent many nights since boyhood. It should be romance, firelight and trout fishing. But all is not as it seems. The energy between them crackles, though not always warmly. There is something beneath the surface, circling.

The sound by composer and sound designer Sam Cheng, and the lighting by Damien Cooper, created a sinister undercurrent, subtle but constant, like weather changing over water. Alongside Anna Tregloan’s bare and clever design, it left the actors to carry the story, the tension and the emotion with nowhere to hide. In her Sydney Theatre Company directorial debut, Margaret Thanos leans beautifully into the unease. At times I felt uncomfortable, and I suspect that was entirely the point.

It was in all parts confusing, like a puzzle. You know when you just cannot quite find the right piece, but you cannot stop trying. That was this play.

And perhaps that is the real question at the centre of it all. What is truth and what is made up? Memory shifts. Stories bend. People present versions of themselves and call it honesty. Nothing in this play arrives neatly labelled. Even love feels uncertain. Is it devotion, loneliness, ritual or possession?

The acting was exceptional throughout.

Miranda Otto was clearly the drawcard, and she played her role with honesty and humility. Her comedic timing was welcomed among the tense moments. I found myself laughing in unusual places.

Ewen Leslie was mesmerising as he held court for the entire play. Restless, magnetic and quietly dangerous, he drew the audience in and never let go.

Andrea Demetriades added another elegant layer to the mystery, bringing a calm intelligence that deepened the shifting currents of the piece.

The other component that worked, and perhaps this is a personal bias, was that there is no interval. It suits this play perfectly. You are, as an audience member, peering through the window of this remote English cabin and you simply cannot look away. Hooked like a trout.

I cannot say that I loved it, but I was captured.

The River is alluring and unsettling in equal measure. It does not hand itself over easily. It asks you to wade in, standstill, and see what surfaces. Then it follows you home, dripping quietly through the mind for days.

Image Credit: Daniel Boud