Review of Loft Theatre Company production of The River (2016)

Deep, dark, disturbing... this follow-up work by Jez Butterworth to his much-acclaimed play Jerusalem is very different in size and scope. And unlike its predecessor, it places a particularly heavy demand on audience susceptibility.

Away from the broad, brawling atmosphere of a colourful central protagonist surrounded by a large cast of characters, we have simply The Man, The Woman and two Other Women in the setting of a bleak, remote fishing cabin.

There is much talk of trout, even the gutting and filleting and eating of one, and the accompanying mystery of women who replace each other without warning in the presence of the single male.

Are they his memories or his imagination? Is he a serial womaniser or even a serial murderer? Are past and present merging in the manner of some eerie psycho-drama?

Greg Cole’s tightly knit production keeps to the open-ended route and manages to preserve the intensity even when the script rambles off into somewhat overwrought ecstasies about fishing and fishing tackle.

It’s true that nature and folklore can effectively create mystique (consider The Wicker Man), but here the writer does tend to indulge in literary verbosity to the detriment of what is essentially a clever theme, much as he did with Jerusalem.

In performance, however, it can hardly be faulted here. While the idea of The Man might indicate a more brawny, less student-like figure, Alex Comer delivers a sharp-edged and effective portrayal, measuring his conquests in terms of fishy or female accessibility.

The two main women are nicely contrasted through the sparky liveliness of Zoë Faithfull and her more sedate, book-minded alter ego Helen Watson.

It’s never less than a fascinating endeavour and an excellent example of how a theatre like the Loft can capitalise on the advantages of such a valuable studio space.

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Peter McGarry is an experienced, independent professional theatre critic who has agreed to review Loft Theatre Company productions.

The agreement with the Loft is that Peter is free to express his opinions for good or ill. The Loft Theatre Company has no control whatsoever over the content of these reviews and will never comment publicly on what he writes.