What does it mean to love? Is it able to be mutually exclusive from the truth? The River is a mystery, but that is not all it is. At its core, this play offers many incredibly complex questions about the nature of love, its allure, and its power over the psyche, in a way that complements the mystery surrounding the plot. This is put together remarkably well by Margaret Thanos, an Alumni of our very own SUDS.

The play has a small cast of three: the Woman (Miranda Otto), the Man (Ewan Leslie), and the Other Woman (Andrea Demetriades), all of whom deliver breathtaking performances, contemplating on their own experiences with love, and playing off of each other beautifully. In a show about love, and what it means to love, there must be chemistry between actors, and these three seem to have bucketfulls of it to spare. With a title like “the other woman”, you might have some reservations about the nature of Leslie’s character, but he manages to garner all of the audience’s sympathy in his almost Sisyphean pursuit of love as it seems to never work in the way he wants it to. Otto’s and Demetriades’ characters themselves also offer distinct and unique takes on what it means to love. While at times mirroring each other, they hold such different values that the eventual explosive arguments between them and the Man are so different in their nuances and outcomes that audiences leave the play realising that these three characters all just have different views, desires, and experiences with the very same thing: love and connection.

The stripped down set elevates the character performances immensely, while still lending itself to the mysterious and secluded atmosphere present due to the mystery of the story. The entirety of the play is set in a small, sequestered cabin, surrounded by forest. As an audience member, you truly feel how closed off the cabin is from the rest of the world, even if there are other people mentioned in the story. The design emphasises how isolated the characters feel in their pursuit of intimacy. In much the same way, the set also lends itself very well to the more absurdist movement sequences present in the play, with the open exterior of the cabin allowing audiences to peer into dark and gloomy forest, where certain figures moving through dark sheets surrounding the stage heighten the suspense already felt by the audience. This is accompanied by a deeply atmospheric soundscape, making every sequence almost spine-tingling.

At only 80 minutes, one might wonder if The River can clearly achieve its intention, and I believe it does, to an incredibly high degree. But, because it is incredibly thought-provoking, and character decisions and musings offer much deeper insight into the themes of the play, one must come to The River prepared to give their full attention. It is not a show to be taken lightly, but one won't have a hard time becoming enraptured by the show, with its central plot-based mystery, the mystery behind character decisions, and the absurdist movement. The River is an absolutely thrilling and simultaneously transformative theatrical experience that will change, or at least make you review, your perspective on the concept of love, and our human need for it.

For anyone experiencing that itch for a really good piece of theatre, look no further than The River, an enthralling mystery with an incredibly philosophical centre, guaranteed to leave you deep in thought.