★★★

“each actor was incredibly committed and the chemistry between them was fantastic”

Jez Butterworth’s The River returns to London at the Greenwich Theatre. A play about a man who takes his girlfriends to a lovely country cabin by a river. Yet he is seemingly haunted by … something?

The show begins with a scene featuring The Man (Paul McGann) and The Woman (Amanda Ryan). They share romantic exchanges before he convinces her to go out fishing with her. After which The Man returns with The Other Woman (Kerri McLean), and their relationship and conversations appear no different. This partner swapping occurs throughout the play, suggesting that The Other Woman is one of potentially many previous partners The Man has taken to the lodge.

It has to be said that the cast, under the strong direction of James Haddrell, were brilliant. I was consistently engrossed in their characters as each actor was incredibly committed and the chemistry between them was fantastic. I could not, however, tell you what the moral or meaning of this story is though – which left me unsatisfied. Throughout the whole show, various mirroring scenes between The Man and the two women occur. In all of them I felt like I was just waiting for them to get to the point. As if we were searching through The Man’s psyche (of which the women are just tools to help do so) via the medium of his dating life, but never actually getting anywhere. He never opens up to his partners and never tells them the truth. He’s searching for something in these women, but we don’t know what. Perhaps that is the point that I am just missing. Maybe the point is he doesn’t know what he’s looking for and he is unsatisfied. That is why we don’t get answers.

McGann’s naturalistic performance of the man is subtle yet nuanced. He wonderfully shifts from loving to anxious to investigative in a matter of moments, and he was key in holding my attention throughout the show. The atmosphere of the theatre was also incredibly accurate. Julian Starr’s sound design is lovely in the way that the subtle noises of the natural world are played constantly – from the occasional cricket to the melody of the river moving. Emily Bestow has designed an incredibly detailed set that fits with the naturalistic style: a fishing cabin (where at one stage, a fish gets gutted) full to the brim of life and the world of The Man.

The best part of The River is the incredibly strong and dedicated performances throughout. It’s unfortunate that they are let down by what I would describe as a repetitive and unsubstantial plot line.

FRONTIERS at Sadler’s Wells Theatre

★★★★

“an impressive showcase of talent, both established and on the up”

The National Ballet of Canada arrived at Sadler’s Wells this season for the first time in over a decade. Company Director Hope Muir leans into the national heritage with a programme of works by contemporary Canadian choreographers, playing to the crowd with choreographer du jour, and Sadler’s Wells Associate Artist, Crystal Pite topping off the bill.

The programme starts with its oldest work from 2013, Passion (header image – photo Bruce Zinger), by James Kudelka. Kudelka is a former Artistic Director of the company, although he created this work after his tenure, originally for Houston Ballet. It’s a wonderful place to start – directly exploring the evolution of the form from the romantic era of the 19th century through to the contemporary era of the 20th. Two duets intermittently draw attention. The first, a classical duet directly adhering to ballet’s 19th century heritage, full of arabesques, pirouettes and picture-perfect lifts that could be snapshots for a textbook. In contrast, we find a man and woman more passionately displaying their relationship – dressed in more simple, everyday costume more reminiscent of a Balanchine rehearsal studio image. The juxtaposition between romanticism and sensuality provides a rich seam for cultural criticism. But there is so much happening between the active corps, the romantic era principals and first soloist duets, and the contemporary duet that something’s got to give. Unfortunately, it’s often the poor corps, who are run ragged by Kudelka’s choreography, hardly leaving the stage or pausing from their jeté’s.

After the interval, are two pieces by female choreographers more alike to each other than to the first piece, though distinct in scale.

Islands (image above – photo Karolina Kuras), is a duet for two women by Emma Portner, a dancer-choreographer with a dauntingly impressive CV for being not-yet 30. Genevieve Penn-Nabity and Heather Ogden reappear fresh from leading the previous piece. Whilst not immediately clear from the off, the dancers are conjoined in a shared pair of trousers. This leads to some wonderful optical illusions, where it’s unclear who which limbs belong to. Disappointingly, the conceit does not continue throughout the whole piece. Whilst the movement of both dancers continues to be wedded to each other as the score moves from more electronic sounds to an almost choral pop piece by Lily Konigsberg, I cannot get past the pile of awkwardly abandoned trousers, symbolising an inspired idea only half-explored.

This notion is only solidified by experiencing Angels’ Atlas (image below – photo Karolina Kuras), a piece created for the company in 2020 by Crystal Pite. Pite is singular in her vision, uniquely exploring colossal concepts about the human condition, such as grief in Betroffenheit, the plight of refugees in Flight Pattern or, in this case, the infinite awesomeness of the cosmos in contrast with individual humanity. Angels Atlas fills the stage with the full company, a Pite signature technique, against a light shattered backdrop, designed by Jay Gower Taylor and Tom Visser, to give an ethereal quality, emphasised by the liturgical chorus. With a cast as large as this, potentially up to fifty dancers, much of the effect comes from the indistinguishability of individuals from the chorus of movement. That being said, Siphesihle November stands out as an utterly bewitching presence amongst the crowd. It’s subtle, but palpable, as if his every exhalation and extension lasts just a moment longer than his neighbours – feeling, rather than performing his role. This is the closest I have come to experiencing dance as hypnosis – the synchronised and canonical movements, combining with the lighting and sound inducing a trance-like state.

Frontiers: Choreographers of Canada achieves what it likely set out to do – return to London with an impressive showcase of talent, both established and on the up, on and behind the stage. Kudelka and Portner’s pieces are enjoyable thematic explorations, but really it’s all about Pite – who never misses.

Category Archives: Reviews

THE RIVER

★★★

Greenwich Theatre

THE RIVER at the Greenwich Theatre

★★★

“each actor was incredibly committed and the chemistry between them was fantastic”

THE RIVER at the Greenwich Theatre

Reviewed on 3rd October 2024

by David Robinson

Photography by Danny With A Camera

Previously reviewed at this venue:

VINCENT RIVER | ★★★ | June 2023

AN INTERVENTION | ★★★½ | July 2022

BAD DAYS AND ODD NIGHTS | ★★★★★ | June 2021

THE RIVER

THE RIVER

Click here to see our Recommended Shows page

FRONTIERS

★★★★

Sadler’s Wells Theatre

FRONTIERS at Sadler’s Wells Theatre

★★★★

“an impressive showcase of talent, both established and on the up”