The Fever

Synopsis

Solo theatre piece about the gaps and links between the rich and poor. A beggar can be beautiful...You like her - you're drawn to her. Yes, you think - there's money in your purse - you'll give her some of it. And a voice says - Why not all of it? Why not give her all that you have? Be careful, that's a question that could poison your life. Your love of beauty could actually kill you. A discomforting journey into the mind of a middle-class New Yorker as he begins to question the validity of his cosy existence. How painful is it to relinquish the fruits of privilege?

Our Review:

7 April 2009

The American playwright Wallace Shawn doesn’t think theatre is worthwhile unless it makes you squirm at least a little bit, and The Fever, a disturbing monologue which he first played at the Royal Court himself (in the Upstairs studio in 1991) certainly gets under your skin.

Well, it got under my skin in Shawn’s performance and it certainly does again in Clare Higgins’ riveting account on the main stage. The one character is really a sort of disembodied voice of the author saying what he really thinks about being a pampered middle-class liberal holed up in a hotel in a small country with a war going on outside.

The traveller, in this case Higgins, describes an execution she knows is happening that morning. It’s as if she’s there. She then drifts in and out of memories and dreams, making connections between the poor and the privileged, re-defining the philosophy of Karl Marx, wondering why anyone should weep for a Chekhov c...

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Latest User Review

rds - 28 April 2009:

More a radio play I think and so unusual for an American writer as they don't have the equivalent of a Radio 4 in the USA. Never the less it gave Clare Higgins, the wonderful Clare Higgins, an opportunity to totally dominate the stage and make 90 minutes fly by, or was that me snoring behind Catherine, of course not I stayed awake because of her artistry. She really could make the telephone directory sound interesting. I found the writing somewhat self-indulgent and circular as has been pointed out here. I read in the program/script that it was first performed in an apartment on 57th ST - yes, I could just imagine that! No doubt it had the desired effect the author wanted and made the middle class, middle brow(?) RC audience feel guilty about their lot - but perhaps not for the few, fleeting, moments that it probably did! Anyway, great to see Ms Higgins do her trade mark bounce at the curtain call - not only does she give us that big beaming smile, but she skips around the stage too! I remember her in Hecuba at the Donmar a while back, after that performance she bounced onto the stage smiling and giggling and skipping like a teenager - what a STAR! ...

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