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Opening Monday at Ilkley Playhouse - a ghost story, a gothic thriller, a parable?

Sunday, 6 July 2025 20:15

The River runs from 7th to 12th July at Ilkley Playhouse

Ilkley Playhouse will take audiences this week to a remote cabin on the cliffs, with a man and a woman, and a moonless night with The River.

In a cabin by the river where the sea trout come to spawn, The Man lures both women and fish with comparable fervour. Accompanied by poetic bait and a troubled, trickling narrative of love, loss, and silver trout, Jez Butterworth’s play is a delightfully cryptic tale of ‘fly fishing and the affairs of the human heart’.

Director Paul Chewins, says of the play,

“The River is a piece of gorgeously sensitive writing, utterly beguiling in its subtle deconstruction of the way we conduct ourselves in relationships - the facades erected, the lies told, the declarations made, the past conveniently ignored. At eighty minutes long and played straight through, it is strange, eerie, and tense. It leaves one unsure whether one is watching a ghost story, a gothic thriller or a parable. This is a play which is meant to perplex, the audience is never allowed to get a foothold on logic or reality and will be discussing it long after the final curtain.”

The River, opens in the Wildman Studio on Monday 7^th July and runs until Saturday 12^th July, tickets are available from ilkleyplayhouse.co.uk

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