The Fever

Genre: Drama
Opened 6 April 2009
Written: by Wallace Shawn
Directed: Dominic Cooke
Cast: Clare Higgins
Synopsis: A traveller from a privileged background visits an impoverished foreign country and suddenly becomes ill. As her temperature begins to rise, she becomes emotionally unsettled and contemplates with lacerating frankness the impact her life has had on the world.

What the popular press had to say.....
NICHOLAS DE JONGH for THE EVENING STANDARD says, "Luridly unbelievable." BENEDICT NIGHTINGALE for THE TIMES says, "The Fever is that rare thing, genuinely challenging. Also, it's performed with a fine blend of feeling and incisiveness by the always excellent Higgins." MICHAEL COVENEY for THE INDEPENDENT says, "The brilliant thing about Shawn's monologue...is that the judgmental element...is completely absent in the play. If the exercise is indeed one of self-indulgent liberal meditation, it's one that is articulated with searing honesty and a dry, elegant wittiness." MICHAEL BILLINGTON for THE GUARDIAN says, "I still admire the piece's moral force, here superbly articulated by Clare Higgins." GERALD BERKOWITZ for THE STAGE says, "The banality of the writing ultimately defeats both the admirable moral purpose of the author and the talent and earnest efforts of the performer." CHARLES SPENCER for THE DAILY TELEGRAPH says, "Clare Higgins ...delivers the monologue...with admirable fluency, humanity, wit and anguish in an attentive production...What even she cannot disguise, however, is the repellent solipsism of the writing, its irritating false naivety, and the feeling that the author is showing off his psychic wounds like some manipulative crippled beggar."

External links to full reviews from popular press
The Guardian
The Independent
The Times
Daily Telegraph

Production photo by Simon Kane