NOT since Pilot Theatre's regional premiere of the three-handed black comedy Parlour Song in July 2011 has a York company staged a Jez Butterworth play.

Wildgoose Theatre end that hiatus by presenting his psychological drama The River from tomorrow to Sunday at Friargate Theatre, Friargate, York, in a welcome chance to see a work by the lesser-spotted-in-the-north writer of Mojo, Jerusalem and The Ferryman, winner of the best new play award at this year’s Oliviers.

"Written for the small space at the Royal Court in 2012, The River fits nicely between two larger plays, Jerusalem and The Ferryman, and bridges them thematically as well," says Wildgoose director Andy Love. "It's a chamber piece by comparison, a one-act play that comes in at a tidy 75-80 minutes, and it opened with Dominic West in the lead role in London and then with Hugh Jackman on Broadway."

Butterworth's dark, mysterious drama is set on a moonless night in August, when the sea trout are ready to run as a man takes his new girlfriend to the remote family cabin where he has enjoyed fly-fishing since he was a boy. Is she the only woman he has brought here, or indeed the last?

"Beguilingly simple, but as deep running and treacherous as any real river, The River continuously blind-sides the audience, confounding their expectations," says Andy. "Sharing roots with poets such as W B Yeats and Ted Hughes, both of whom are referenced in the play, Butterworth manages not only explore the relationships between the three characters but, more essentially, their relationships with nature too."

Butterworth calls his characters The Man, The Woman and The Other Woman, and such is the sense of mystery in The River that Love set his cast of Claire Morley, George Stagnell and Anna Rogers an early challenge. "One of the things I asked them to do was to come up with a time line for the story and all three came up with a different one...and I disagreed with all of them!" says Andy. "But I can't go into the plot too deeply with you as we'd need a spoiler alert!"

Although The River is a three-hander, most of the scenes are "dualogues" with only two cast members involved at any one time. "The play plays with just how aware are the audience of what's going on, and it'll be interesting to hear what people say at the question-and-answer session after the Friday performance," says Andy.

Like the nameless characters, the river of the title is unspecified. "We've set it in England, where there are a couple of sea trout rivers, where the trout come back to mate and spawn," says Andy. "In fact the fourth character in the play is a sea trout, who, for economic reasons, will be played by a rainbow trout, which are about a tenth of the price.

"We have to have two fresh trout each show that George has to gut and prepare for eating, so that's been a new experience for him."

The River will be in full flow at Friargate Theatre at 7.30pm tomorrow and Friday, 3pm and 7.30pm on Saturday and 3pm on Sunday afternoon and tickets can be booked at ridinglights.org/the-river/. A further performance follows at Seven Arts, Leeds, on May 3 at 7.30pm; tickets at sevenleeds.co.uk/event/wildgoose-theatre-the-river/. Age guide: suitable for 14 upwards.