SOURCE: Austin, April. “A Hoodlum in the Existential Mode.” Christian Science Monitor 85, no. 119 (17 May 1993): 12.

In the following review, Austin provides a mixed assessment of Those the River Keeps.

Mafia ruthlessness and machismo have provided material for a numbing array of plays, movies, and books. The mob holds a fascination for dramatists who seek an environment in which the worst instincts of men are cultivated, giving the writer permission to explore dark realms of human behavior.

In David Rabe's new play, Those the River Keeps (produced as part of the American Repertory Theatre's New Stages program), the mob plays a subsidiary role, but has a strong presence nonetheless. The story concerns a former hit man named Phil (played by Paul Guilfoyle) who has yanked himself out of the New York gangster scene and moved to California with hopes of becoming an actor. He has married a much younger woman...