The River

Anna Sokolova
Apr 11
4 min read

Updated: Apr 12

Sydney Theatre Company Sydney, 10 Apr - 16 May 2026

The review

It is a metaphorical, poetic work. Mesmerizing design, lighting, and soundscape: long black stripes with a shiny sheen, about a foot wide, hang from the ceiling, ending a little above the floor, making the space feel infinite. And there is just a skeleton of the hut, surrounded by the subtly glittering space - the lightest, transparent structure possible.

A wooden hut somewhere in a deep forest, by the water. A man and a woman are there, for some time, to be alone with themselves and with the River.

It is a surrealistic play. Margaret Thanos, from what I’ve seen, excels in creating performances that translate strong, bold emotions and are also a bit surreal, sometimes esoteric, and always heavily layered. “The River” is set realistically in acting, so each scene is a textbook of psychological theatre. The cast is amazing; each is a perfect match for a role. A Man is having a gentle, evolving, tender conversation with a Woman. Both are trying to avoid any sharp edges, caring about what is growing between them. Then a woman leaves the room, and later she returns - but it is another actress now. The conversation continues where it stopped, with only ultra-fine variations. Each scene is certain and grounded. But with women swapping each other, picking up from what the previous one said, and with slight divergence in their stories, it starts to feel like a feverish dream. Is it the same woman, or two? Are they real, or just his imagination? Is the Man who he says he is?

There are candles and a bright red dress - attributes equally suited to a romance, or a horror story, which these humans are only a part of. The space itself feels alive, feels like another character in the play. The River is constantly being referred to, its flow, its existence, its strength - the image is filling the space and imagination. This play is an ode to the ecstatic moments when feelings are bursting, moments when worlds are connecting. That is not only about the connection between a man and a woman, but it is about something else out there, big and indescribable.

The unique and a bit odd turn that the thing that evokes the magic is fishing. Catching a trout is as big as an alter ego of some existential power of the universe. If one can get over the banality of this time-spending, then the experience lived through watching this show is more than sophisticated, as this quote recalls: “When you catch one, it’s like catching a lightning bolt. It’s like jamming your finger into a socket. Like a million sunsets rolled into a ball and shot straight into your veins. And you feel it. By God, you feel it.”

The interlacing of a disturbing story of Man and Woma(e)n with the flow of the space they are immersed in, created magnificently. Margaret Thanos is truly a master at forging perfectly structured puzzles completed with a rich, bold palette of associations, reflections, love and longing for love, fear, and laughs. There are never half-tones, all bright and clear at any moment, but with cleverly embedded mismatches when looked at as a whole, creating an urge to hold to the sense of sanity.

There is a bit too much fish, though. There is one which would be too hard to watch if not for the Woman’ (Andrea Demetriades) hilariously funny play with it. And also, my imagination was not strong enough to see anything more than a weird, over-timed ecstatic process of cleaning a fish. The Man got out an old-fashioned radio, turned it to a broadcast (by chance!) of a deeply textured classic concert, and dancing and murmuring along with the sounds of piano, proceeded with the fish. Whatever the metaphor it was, it was too much. And there was one more problem. I was struggling to elevate the torment of this Man from being a trivial male who just keeps using women to cover a hole in his soul, to a high tragedy of a lost, deeply poetic soul.

Though if one can overcome this and get prepared to see a story, the core of which is much more than simplistic, it will lift up the experience of watching this show to a magical level.

With the afterfeel that despite the man in this play being placed as a central figure who is longing for love and creates his world for himself, it is much more about women. Two or doubled instances of one (Miranda Otto @miranda.otto and Andrea Demetriades @andrea_demetriades), they are the ones who are much more intriguing, smart, funny, intelligent, delicate, vulnerable, bold, and who are literally shaping his reality, intimately connecting to the River on their own.