The River

by Jez Butterworth

Overview

On a moonless night in August when the sea trout are ready to run, a man brings his new girlfriend to the remote family cabin where he has come for the fly-fishing since he was a boy. But she's not the only woman he has brought here – or indeed the last.

A bewitching story from the author of global smash hit Jerusalem, Jez Butterworth's play The River was first performed at the Royal Court Theatre, London, in October 2012.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781780011868
Publisher:	Hern, Nick Books
Publication date:	11/08/2012
Series:	NHB Modern Plays
Sold by:	Bookwire
Format:	eBook
Pages:	64
File size:	4 MB

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.

Jez Butterworth is one of the UK's leading playwrights. His plays include: Mojo (Royal Court Theatre, London, 1995; West End, 2013); The Night Heron (Royal Court, 2002); The Winterling (Royal Court, 2006);  Parlour Song (Atlantic Theater, New York, 2008; Almeida Theatre, London, 2009); Jerusalem (Royal Court, 2009; West End, 2010; New York, 2011); The River (Royal Court, 2012); The Ferryman (Royal Court and West End, 2017) and The Hills of California (West End, 2024).

Mojo won the George Devine Award, the Olivier Award for Best Comedy and the Writers' Guild, Critics' Circle and Evening Standard Awards for Most Promising Playwright. Jerusalem won the Best Play Award at the Critics' Circle, Evening Standard and WhatsOnStage.com Awards, and was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Play. The Ferryman won the Evening Standard Theatre Award for Best Play, and the Critics' Circle, Olivier and WhatsOnStage Awards for Best New Play, as well as the 2019 Tony Award for Best Play.

His screenwriting credits include Fair Game (2010), Get On Up (2014), Edge of Tomorrow (2014), Black Mass (2015), Spectre (2015), Ford v Ferrari (2019), and Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny (2023).

For TV, he created and wrote the comedy series Mammals for Amazon Studios, and created the historical fantasy drama Britannia for Sky and Amazon Prime.

In 2007, he won the E.M. Forster Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. In 2019 he was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.

Author photo by Steve Schofield

Editorial Reviews

"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


"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

From the Publisher