REVIEW: Mystery, Romance, Thriller, Or Red Flag Alert… Jez Butterworth’s THE RIVER Takes Time To Digest
THE RIVER
By: Jade Kops
Tuesday 78th April 2026, 7:30pm, Drama Theatre, Sydney Opera House
The purpose of Jez Butterworth’s 2012 play THE RIVER is as elusive as its subject matter, the Sea Trout. Unclear whether it is a mystery, romance, thriller, or a study on when to run from a red flag from a potential boyfriend, this work requires more post curtain pondering than the average play.
Director Margaret Thanos draws the audience into the world of “The Man” (Ewen Leslie) as he spends a weekend at his family’s fishing cottage with his girlfriend, “The Woman” (Miranda Otto). He’s excited as the new moon is due to create a dark, moonless sky, perfect for catching Sea Trout, a sport he takes very seriously. She’s less interested in fishing and was hoping for a relaxing holiday of reading her book and enjoying the sunset, but she has humoured him with a day of learning to cast a line, getting sunburnt for her efforts. While it seems that she’s the first he’s bought to his haven things start to unravel as similar scenes with “The Other Woman” (Andrea Demetriades) start playing out while “The Woman” has left the room to retrieve something in the other room. The cracks in The Man’s seemingly caring and passionate nature starting to show when The Woman and The Other Women both, in turn, do things that don’t fit in with his view of how he thinks they should be, hapless novices that won’t be able to land the prized ‘monster’ fish, who will respect his sanctuary and not move things and will treat his obsessive past time with the same reverence he does. 
Butterworth’s timeline is purposefully unclear aside from the repetition between the two pairings. Layered on the ‘revolving door’ of lovers is Anna Tregloan’s design which leans heavily into the dark and mysterious. The cottage is represented as the timber frame of a building while the surrounding forest is a mass of thick black ribbons of something with enough movement to represent the rustle of riverside trees and vines while capturing the flashes of lightning and providing glimpses of mysterious movements in the riverside forest. Sam Cheng’s sound design heightens the tension with thunderstorms to go with the lightning and an eerie piano piece played on the radio as “The Man” prepares a Sea Trout for supper that draws on stereotypes of psychopath and serial killer movies.
Presented over 80 minutes, the three performers are the driving force of THE RIVER as the plot and pretext of the piece is so uncertain throughout. Ewen Leslie’s “Man” has the elements of an obsessive that seems like he’s lucky to have lured The Woman into his life, transfixed on his goal of the ultimate fish to the point he dismisses the women’s interests and seems hyper sensitive when things don’t play out as he expected. Miranda Otto gives a grounded woman, more mature than “The Other Woman” but equally aware of a desire to make the most of the weekend and smooth over any disagreements they have. Andrea Demetriades has a brighter more playful energy that takes more risks at pushing “The Man’s” buttons.
How THE RIVER sits with an audience may be dictated by their own experiences more than what is on stage. A skepticism towards romance may alter a ‘reading’. A tendency for suspicion may lead to a caution that this could turn nasty. A trust in the good in people may lead to a more romantic viewpoint. This work is definitely not one that your BroadwayWorld Reviewer could walk out of and immediately pass a judgment on which can be good in some ways, as it provokes thought but also frustrating in the resolution of ‘what did I just witness’ that sits and lingers a day later.
Sydney Theatre Company - THE RIVER
Photos: Daniel Boud
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