The River (Sydney Theatre Company), at Drama Theatre, Sydney Opera House

He (The Man, as he is called in this drama cum romance, as played by Ewen Leslie) loves deeply.

His first love is trout fishing, which he has been consumed by since he caught his first fish with his uncle at the age of seven.

Photos by Daniel Boud

His favourite spot is a remote cabin in the woods.

It is where he has brought his girlfriend, The Woman (Miranda Otto), on a moonless night on August 21^st.

She is enamoured by the sunset, anxiously calling out for him to view it with her. 

But he pushes back. Instead, he describes the sunset – which he has clearly seen many times before – to her … and the moment is broken.

He is consumed by a once-a-year event that is about to happen in the river, which he speaks about in poetic terms – and it is all to do with trout.

He implores her to join him. She doesn’t want to, but he is nothing if not persistent.

She eventually relents. It is clear that he cares for her deeply.

Be that as it may, what becomes obvious is that she is not the first woman he has had at the cabin, nor the first woman with whom he has gone fishing at the river.

As hard as he falls for them, each time his self-destruct mechanism gets in the way.

That is also obvious from the other woman (a role filled by Andrea Demetriades) he courts in the play – younger, but no less enthusiastic.

The pattern was set a long time ago and his mistakes from the past show no signs of abating.

While the women come and go, the trout just keep on biting.

English playwright Jeremy "Jez" Butterworth is adept at embracing human frailties in The River.

It is a lyrical commentary about love and loss, and how one can so readily turn to the other.

It has been brilliantly realised by STC first time director Margaret Thanos, who gives us food for thought, but no easy answers.

Ewen Leslie is passionate, intense and unrelenting as The Man. 

Miranda Otto and Andrea Demetriades are spirited as The Woman and The Other Woman respectively, smitten for a time, but with questions and reservations.

The Man doesn’t react well to the scrutiny.

What struck me the moment I entered the Drama Theatre was the effect of the design by Anna Tregloan.

Around the skeleton of a cabin are positioned hundreds of darkly coloured vertical blinds, reminiscent of a forest of trees.

In the foreground is a large wooden table, a couple of wooden chairs and a wooden cabinet. Sparse, but most evocative.

What gives The River even greater clout is the dramatic score and the stark lighting (particularly in realising thunder and lightning).

The composer and sound designer is Sam Cheng, while the lighting design is the domain of Damien Cooper.

Their impact in resounding.

Seventy-five minutes without interval, The River causes one to reflect upon the vicissitudes of relationships and the great loves of one’s life.

I was left thinking that often we are our own worst enemy.

The play is on at the Drama Theatre, at Sydney Opera House, until 16^th May, 2026.