The River at Greenwich Theatre

There are certain things that I look for when selecting a theatre performance to see and the name Jez Butterworth is one of these. 

It helped that it starred Paul McGann and was on at Greenwich Theatre which I had liked on my first visit to see Vincent River in 2024 (yes, the two plays I have seen at Greenwich Theatre are Vincent River and The River). A front row seat (A27) for £21, thanks to concessions, was an offer that I was not going to refuse.

Greenwich is fairly central but it still took a mainline train, a Jubilee Line train and a DLR train to get there. Luckily the connections were good (though having to climb up the emergency escape steps at Cutty Sark was not great) and I got there in good time for bit of a mooch and a coffee with cake before heading to the theatre where I had a pint of local Meantime beer before the show.

The story to The River is superficially simple, a middle age man has short term relationships with multiple women that follow the same course but while the story is simple the storytelling is anything but and that is what makes The River rather special.

The main technique is to interweave the stories of two of the women so we see similar scenes played out with the two female leads, Kerri McLean and Amanda Ryan, with one leaving the set to be replaced by the other repeatedly. The stories are non-sequential so, for example, we see one woman ask about a drawing she has found and then we see him doing the drawing. This is all done very nicely so that it is not too complicated to follow nor too clever for its own sake.

Making sure that everything was perfect, the stage was very effective as were the sounds (mostly of a river) and the lighting. Greenwich is quite a small theatre and it was punching above its weight here.

I said that the story was superficially simple and some time later I am still thinking through some of the deliberate loose ends and uncertainties. A play that makes you think afterwards is a good thing.

The River was a thoroughly engrossing and stimulating production which I enjoyed greatly.