Plot Waters Too Murky to Figure Out
What Hugh Jackman is Doing By the River
By Lauren Yarger
Let me start out by
saying that I although I was somewhat alone in the critics circles a couple of
seasons ago, I really liked Jez Butterworth’s puzzling, deep and humorous play Jerusalem (also directed by Ian
Dickson).
Critics weren’t sure
what the heck it was about, but enjoyed the fabulous performance of Mark
Rylance. I appreciated the mythical saga of a man’s journey through pain and
felt, yes, somewhat superior to my colleagues who didn’t get it. No longer.
After seeing The River, Butterworth’s newest play, getting
a limited run at Circle in the Square Theater with Box-Office-Golden Hugh
Jackman as its star, I have to admit I’m in the “didn’t-get-it” category for
this one. A colleague texted me after seeing it: “What the heck was that about?”
“No idea,” I replied.
Jackman plays a man
(listed in the Playbill only as “The Man,” so you know you’re in trouble….) who
likes fishing a lot at a “cabin on the cliffs, above the river” – the nonspecifics
continue. We know he likes fishing because he talks about it a lot to two women
(Cush Jumbo and Laura Donnelly), identified as The Woman and The Other Woman
who appear at the cabin separate from each other, but who tend to have the same
conversation with The Man….
Is he really just trying
to get them to do a little night fishing or is there more sinister bait at the
end of his hook? Who are they and why are they at the cabin, and whose drawing
with the face missing is hidden under the bed and why is her dress still in the
cabin? No clue.
“I promised myself I
would only bring one woman here,” Jackman’s character tells one of the women. “The
woman I wanted to spend my life with. The woman I wanted to be with forever.
She would come here, and it would be sacred. It would be something I had only shared
with her and her alone.”
OK, so is the woman with
her face scratched out that “sacred” choice and none of these others can fill
her shoes? Is this a line which he uses to gain the confidence of a long stream
of woman he captures in his net? Is one of them the ideal woman before her face
is scratched out of the photo? Do they all only exist in his imagination? Did
he kill one or more of them and now he’s is reeling in his next catch? Did his
uncle do the killing? Is this some sort of purgatory?
No clue, but it certainly
was 80 minutes of confusion for my brain, despite Jackman’s solid performance and fish-gutting skills. The able design team is
In an attempt to offer
you some insight to the play and its meaning, I offer you the description from
the show’s page:
“On a moonless evening, a man brings his new
girlfriend to a remote cabin for a night of trout-fishing. But before the night
is over, it becomes clear that nothing is as it seems… and as memory collides
with desire, the truth becomes the most elusive catch of all.”
In addition, here the few notes I scribbled on my reporter’s pad: “
- What the heck did that mean?” (The Woman had just read a poem by Yeats.)
- · “Isn’t that a different woman?”
- · “He just said he loved her while gutting a fish.”
- · “Who the heck is buried out at the abandoned house?”
- · “Isn’t that a different woman again?”
- · “Isn’t that the same water spigot they used for The Miracle Worker and Godspell at this theater?
- · “Isn’t that a different woman again?”
OK, now you write the
review…. Press agents asked us not to reveal the ending. No problem since I
didn’t get that either.
The best part of the
night came after the curtain when Jackman enticed members of the audience to
bid on the T-shirt he was wearing to raise funds for Broadway Cares, Equity
Fights AIDs. The quite personable actor ended up with two parties paying $7,000
each for the privilege of having their pictures taken with him backstage. He
also brought in the most money – almost $500,000 – of all the Broadway,
Off-Broadway and touring shows competing in this year’s Gypsy competition for
the cause.
That’s the kind of star
power that is keeping The River packing
the house with premium tickets selling as high as $275 each. It sure isn’t the
plot.
The River runs (nice pun) through Feb. 8 at Circle in the Square Theatre, 235 W. 50th St., NYC. Perfromances: Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday at 7 pm; Friday and Saturday at 8 pm; Wednesday and Saturday at 2 pm; Sunday at 3 pm. Tickets $35-$175; http://www.theriveronbroadway.com/
Christians might also like to know:
-- The show posts a MATURE warning
-- Language
-- God's name taken in vain
No comments:
Post a Comment