THE RIVER: A Haunting Journey Through Love, Loss and the Stories We Tell Ourselves

Dave Yakubik as The Man and Maria Latiolais as The Woman in West End Productions' The River. Photo credit: Broken Chain Photography

There are some plays you watch, applaud, and leave behind when you walk out of the theatre, and then there are plays like Jez Butterworth's The River - productions that stay with you. West End Productions' staging of The River, directed by Joe Feldman, is a haunting, intimate, and beautifully complicated exploration of love, desire, memory, loss, and the sometimes uncomfortable patterns we repeat in our search for connection, designed to resonate and showcase exceptional production quality.

The production places audiences inside an isolated cabin beside a river, where a man has brought his newest girlfriend for a night of fishing. But what initially appears to be an intimate getaway gradually becomes something far more mysterious as the audience begins to realize that this isn't the first woman he has brought to this place—and perhaps won't be the last. And that is about as much as you should know before experiencing it yourself, because part of the magic of The River is allowing the story to reveal itself.

Butterworth's writing is mysterious, poetic, and deliberately elusive, asking questions about relationships without providing comfortable answers - What happens when we keep searching for something we've already lost? Can we ever truly separate love from memory? How much of the person we fall in love with is actually the person standing in front of us—and how much is the version we've created in our own minds?

The River doesn't hand the audience an easy explanation. Instead, it invites us into the uncertainty. That could easily become frustrating in the wrong hands. Here, it becomes mesmerizing.

At the heart of the production is Dave Yakubik as The Man, delivering an extraordinary performance filled with charm, vulnerability, humor, frustration, and longing. He brings depth and humanity to the character, making his emotional journey deeply affecting. His ability to communicate through the smallest moments—a pause, a look, a change in tone—is remarkable. When he cried, we cried. Yakubik's performance carries an aching vulnerability that stays with you long after the curtain falls.

Opposite him, Maria Latiolais as The Woman brings intelligence, strength, and an emotional grounding to the production. She creates a character who feels genuinely curious about the man she's with while still maintaining individuality and independence. Latiolais called for so many levels to be on display on the North 4th stage - hope, betrayal, trust, and vulnerability. She carried each one with a strength that carried through the theater.

Rachel Foster as The Other Woman adds another fascinating layer to the story. Her performance further blurs the boundaries between memory, repetition, and reality, and she handles the play's shifting emotional landscape beautifully. Her delivery of the words from the script resonated, and you felt every word. The pain of realizing what she knew when it came to this relationship and the decision that had to be made was palpable.

Together, the cast creates a delicate balance where every interaction feels intimate and even the smallest shift in a relationship feels significant.

Left to right: Maria Latiolais (The Woman), Dave Yakubik (The Man), and Rachel Foster (The Other Woman) in West End Productions' The River. Photo credit: Broken Chain Photography

Director Joe Feldman deserves tremendous credit for understanding that The River cannot be rushed. This production requires patience. Feldman's direction gives the actors room to breathe, letting moments of silence and uncertainty become as important as the dialogue. He trusts the audience enough not to explain everything—and that trust pays off. The result is a production that feels intimate rather than traditionally theatrical. Feldman understands that the mystery doesn't need to be solved. The mystery is the experience.

One of the production's greatest achievements is its set design. Designed and built by Ryan Jason Cook, the cabin becomes more than a location-it immerses the audience in the story's world. The environment invites viewers to feel as if they are part of this isolated space, fostering involvement and curiosity that deepen emotional engagement.

The physical environment reinforces the play's psychological world. The cabin feels safe and intimate one moment and strangely unsettling the next. It is a beautiful example of how thoughtful scenic design can elevate storytelling without ever calling attention to itself.

The work happening behind the scenes deserves just as much recognition. Riley Lewis' lighting design, along with Casey Mraz's sound work, contributes enormously to the atmosphere. Lighting and sound become emotional tools, subtly shifting the audience's perception of time, place, and mood. Rhonda Backinoff's costume design helps ground the characters in their world without distracting from the performances, while Jordan Rose Claghorn's property design and set decoration add the details that make the cabin feel lived-in rather than constructed. The stage management and entire production crew provide the foundation that makes everything onstage feel seamless. This is one of those productions where the audience may not consciously notice every technical choice—and that is actually a compliment.

Because when the production elements work this well, they disappear into the storytelling.

Something deeply beautiful about The River is that it refuses to tell us exactly what to think. This open-ended approach invites the audience to feel curious and contemplative, encouraging personal reflection and emotional investment in the story's mysteries.

It asks us to feel, question, remember, and wonder whether some people enter our lives because they are meant to stay—or because they are meant to teach us something about ourselves before they disappear. West End Productions has created a production that respects its audience's intelligence while giving its actors space to explore extraordinarily complicated emotions. By the time the lights come up, you may not have every answer. You may not even be entirely sure what you witnessed. But you'll probably still be thinking about it the next day. And perhaps that is the greatest compliment you can give a play.

See The River. Go for the performances. Go for the beautiful set. Go for Joe Feldman's thoughtful direction. Go for the atmosphere. But most importantly, go because this is theatre that doesn't simply end when the curtain falls. Some stories stay with you. The River is one of them.

The River by Jez Butterworth and presented by West End Productions, directed by Joe Feldman, runs from August 28 - September 13, 2026, at North Fourth Theatre (4904 4th St. NW) in Albuquerque. Tickets are available at westendproductions.org.