Susan Granger’s review of “The River” (Circle in the Square 2014-2015 season)
Without Hugh Jackman, Jez Butterworth’s murky new play might run in a tiny off-Broadway theater for, perhaps, two weeks. Because Jackman’s charisma is what keeps it afloat, particularly given the intimacy of Circle in the Square, where audience members have an up-close-and-personal connection.
Jackson plays an intense, unnamed Man who is obsessed with finding love and fly-fishing. To that end, he has brought a Woman (Cush Jumbo) to his isolated cabin on the banks of a river to join him on a very special, moonless, late-summer night when the sea trout are running. Despite his romantic entreaties, she’s peevishly reluctant, yet she agrees to accompany him, only to slip away in the dark. Enter the Other Woman (Laura Donnelly), a mysterious presence from the past who complicates matters in the present. Love – it appears – is as elusive as the silvery trout that the Man envisions.
Playwright Jez Butterworth scored big with the cryptic tragicomedy “Jerusalem” back in 2009, so this 85-minute lyrical meditation on the tenuousness of love seems trivial in comparison. And since it’s so realistically staged by director Ian Rickson, including the Man’s gutting and stuffing a fresh fish, the narrative flights of fancy – quotations from the poetry of Ted Hughes and William Butler Yeats – seem even more stilted and artificial, along with the symbolic Celtic imagery. What’s missing is a sense of mystery and, perhaps, menace – which would have made it far more compelling.
The open-sided setting designed by Ultz is interesting with lighting by designer Charles Balfour and intriguing night sounds by Ian Dickinson of the Autograph design team.
Jez Butterworth splits his time between stage and screen. This year he also wrote the James Brown biopic “Get On Up” with his brother John Henry, along with Tom Cruise’s “Edge of Tomorrow.”
FYI: While ardent Jackman fans are told to shut off (not just silence) their cellphones and cameras during the performance, they’re given ample opportunity to snap away when the genial, gracious actor comes forth to do an AIDS charity pitch for Broadway Cares after the curtain calls.
“The River” will run at Circle in the Square through February 8, 2015.