The River - by Jez Butterworth (Paperback)

About the Book

A bewitching new play from the award-winning author of Broadway hit Jerusalem.

Book Synopsis

"The River is like a subtly crafted piece of chamber music. It is teasing, haunting and hushed. It is also damnably difficult to write about, as there is a mystery at its heart that I must not reveal." --Charles Spencer, Telegraph

"One of the best productions of the year... a magnetically eerie,
luminously beautiful psychodrama." --Time Out (London)

"The River is subtle, sleek and dark. Here is a sense of the mysterious and of kinship with others long gone. It is perhaps about time and eternity, about that spot on the river that, while always the same, is always changing. A wonderful play, glinting and elusive as a fish." -Sarah Hemming, Financial Times

A remote fishing cabin, a man and a woman, and a moonless night - The River asks; when we find each other, are we trying to recapture someone we once lost? Tony Award winner Hugh Jackman starred in the hit Broadway production of The River in 2014 after its successful run in London.

Jez Butterworth is also the author Mojo, The Night Heron, The Winterling, Parlour Song and Jerusalem. His plays have premiered in London at the Royal Court Theatre and the Almeida Theatre and in New York City at the Atlantic Theatre and on Broadway. He has won numerous awards for his work, including the E. M. Forster Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. He lives in Somerset, England.

Review Quotes

"The River is like a subtly crafted piece of chamber music. It is teasing, haunting and hushed. It is also damnably difficult to write about, as there is a mystery at its heart that I must not reveal." - Charles Spencer, Telegraph

FIVE STARS: "One of the best productions of the year... a magnetically eerie, luminously beautiful psychodrama." - Andrzej Lukowski, Time Out (London)

"The River is subtle, sleek and dark. Here is a sense of the mysterious and of kinship with others long gone. It is perhaps about time and eternity, about that spot on the river that, while always the same, is always changing. A wonderful play, glinting and elusive as a fish." -Sarah Hemming, Financial Times

FOUR STARS: "Strange, eerie, tense and, on a single viewing, slightly unfathomable. The play kept me on tenterhooks." - Michael Billington, The Guardian

FOUR STARS: "Lyrical and tricksy, occasionally droll and ultimately desolating, this intimate three-hander unfolds like a tantalising cross between a piece of deeply felt poetry and a sleight-of-hand puzzle." - Paul Taylor, The Independent

FOUR STARS: "Butterworth's dialogue flips between wryly humorous, naturalistic exchanges and more stylistically heightened passages... a disturbing slow burn." - Kate Bassett, The Independent on Sunday

About the Author

Jez Butterworth's playwriting debut, "Mojo," was staged at the Royal Court in 1995, and was acclaimed as 'one of the most dazzling Royal Court main stage debuts in years' ("Time Out"). Since then his plays have been premiered at the Royal Court, at the Almeida Theatre and at the Atlantic Theater in New York. "Jerusalem" ran for two hit seasons in the West End, as well as on Broadway. His films include "Birthday Girl," "Fair Game" and an adaptation of "Mojo."