Playwright with point about river and wasteland (10)
I believe the answer is:
wilderness
'wasteland' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'playwright with point about river' is the wordplay.
'playwright' becomes 'wildness' (I am not sure about this - if you are sure you should believe this answer much more).
'with' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'point' becomes 'E' (compass point).
'about' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'river' becomes 'r' (abbreviation).
'wildness' enclosing 'e' is 'wildeness'.
'wildeness' enclosing 'r' is 'WILDERNESS'.
'and' acts as a link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for wilderness that I've seen before include "for a time unrecognised" , "Inhospitable region" .)