ED2015 2/5 Reviews ED2015 Theatre Reviews

The River (Brodrick Productions)

By Andy Leask | Published on Monday 10 August 2015

There’s nothing particularly bad about ‘The River’: the performances are solid, the direction clear and the dialogue authentic. It’s a tale of a young man who keeps bringing different women to a cabin for a romantic weekend. The action cuts back and forth between two different time frames and we watch these relationships develop and disintegrate in tandem. That’s a clever enough device, but it’s not servicing any greater theme; the audience is left no wiser about the heart or motivations of the man. Is he callous? Is he damaged? Is he supposed to be emblematic of men in general? Ultimately, it’s impossible to know and, sadly, hard to care.

C, until 31 Aug.
tw rating 2/5 | [Andrew Leask]