The River
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Cititour.com Review
The last time Hugh Jackman appeared on Broadway minus music, the result was less than dazzling. In A Steady Rain in 2009, he waded through a contrived script, trying to make a disturbed corrupt cop compelling. He’s on surer ground in The River, a British import from Jez Butterworth, a master at depicting dark and disturbed minds in plays like Jerusalem and Mojo. He keeps the audience guessing about what’s going on until the very end of this 80-minute psychological mystery. It doesn’t end with the explosion that some of his other plays have, and its oblique ending may leave some puzzled, but this is a work whose quiet resonance lingers.
With characters known simply as The Man (Jackman), The Woman (Cush Jumbo) and The Other Woman (Laura Donnelly), it’s clear we’re in existential territory. The setting is a cabin above a river where The Man, an avid fisherman, brings his girlfriend, The Woman, in the first scene. After they head off on a late-night fishing expedition and the play segues into the next scene, The Man is frantic because his girlfriend has going missing. When she shows up, it’s The Other Woman, and throughout the rest of the play Butterworth plays a Pinteresque game, as the two women appear in alternating scenes without explanation. Are they two sides of the same woman? Is this all taking place in The Man’s head? Have the women met violent ends at his hands?
Anything’s possible, until the final revelation, where Butterworth’s haunting play zeroes in on the powerful lure of the past no matter how one tries to let it go. Ian Rickson, the playwright’s longtime director, keeps the mood fraught and the action percolating as Donnelly, Jumbo and Jackman capture the longings and isolation of their characters through Butterworth’s poetic prose. Not that he needed to, but Jackman proves his theatrical prowess extends beyond the musical theater stage.
By DIANE SNYDER
Visit the Site
http://www.theriveronbroadway.com
Cast
Hugh Jackman, Laura Donnelly, Cush Jumbo
Open/Close Dates
Opening 11/16/2014
Closing 2/8/2015
Preview Open/ Preview Close Dates
Preview Opening 10/31/2014
Closing Open-ended
Box Office
212-239-6200
Theatre Info
Circle in the Square
235 West 50th Street
New York, NY 10019
Map
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