The Drama
The fisherman (Ewen Leslie) has brought his girlfriend (Miranda Otto) to his family’s remote cabin in the woods. There’s tension between them. Minor skirmishes erupt over whether he has paused, at her direction, to enjoy the sunset, whether she has moved a wooden table, and whether she’s been trout fishing before. But the sexual tension is also palpable.
Soon enough the couple leave the cabin and head down to the river for some night trout fishing. The stage fades to black.
Photo Credit – STC / Daniel Boud
There is burgeoning panic when the stage lights return. The fisherman is clambering up onto the table, trying to find some mobile phone reception. He needs to contact the police. His girlfriend has wandered off into the night and now she’s missing.
Yet, just as the tension is ratcheted to the max, a feminine figure emerges from the forest. The fisherman’s relief is obvious. He terminates his call to the police and greets his girlfriend at the door.
But wait! It’s a different woman (Andrea Demetriades)! What is going on?
Photo Credit – STC / Daniel Boud
An Intriguing Linguistic Puzzle
The premise for The River – a man’s attempt the seduce multiple women the same way – is typically rich fodder for comedic fare.
But playwright, Jez Butterworth, has taken a different approach.
The River is creepy. The set design is claustrophobic. The lighting is disturbing. Without giving too much away, the dialogue hints at ill intent.
As I sat in the Sydney Opera House Drama Theatre, I heard a woman in the row behind me whisper to her partner the second time Miranda Otto left the stage only for Andrea Demetriades to replace her, “why are there two actresses” and, after a pause, her partner replying, “I don’t know”.
The answer to that question is as elusive as the trout the fisherman is trying to catch.
Perhaps the fisherman has experienced similar interactions with multiple women. Or maybe we are seeing his memory of the same woman from different perspectives. Perhaps all his romantic interludes have merged into one in his memory. Or maybe it’s possible that none of the women exist and the fisherman is filling the void of his solitude with fantasy.
Photo Credit – STC / Daniel Boud
A More Pragmatic Puzzle
On a more practical level, I still don’t know whether the fisherman actually gutted and cooked that lifelike looking trout live on stage or whether it was just an ingenious illusion created by clever stagecraft.
So many questions. So few answers.
What My Eyebrows Told Me
My eyebrows left the Drama Theatre, having seen The River, in a fixed Caterpillar Arch.
It was an intriguing play. But I found it genuinely perplexing.
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