Theatre Review: The Fever (Wallace Shawn, 2 Apr - 2 May, RCT)
Tonight I saw The Fever by Wallace Shawn at the Royal Court Theatre.
It was a comped show for me, as it was first night and I am part of their target audience (or, rather, my friends are their target audience, and I am the person that's gonna tell them to go see it). All in all, it was an interesting but tiring experience. Clare Higgins is very good in delivering what is essentially a 90 minute monologue. The material is at times striking, amusing, and upsetting. A woman travelling to a poor country develops a fever and starts to question the motivation for her travels, and for her belief that what she's doing is good. It's good stuff, albeit marred by an over-reliance on clichéd imagery. Frequently people and objects are 'soaked in blood', and guilt is used somewhat overbearingly to force a reaction. Strangely, it's the humour that makes this work, elevating the material above that of a 90 minute navel-gazing session. It rings too close to home to be dismissed as that; the arguments used to justify the woman's lifestyle choices are the very same we all use, and it is the nervous, self-deprecating humour that lays that bare - not the descriptions of people suffering. At the end of the day, the audience leaves more interested in the wealthy traveller and her motivation than the nameless people she sees tortured and murdered. They have faded to a backdrop in her story.
*
On a side note, we had excellent seats in the stalls, and sitting a couple of rows in front of us was ... Wallace Shawn himself, who is, of course, Vizzini in The Princess Bride. Yes, I had to go look in imdb for that, because I recognised the face immediately but had no idea who the guy's name was... so was mildly surprised to realise that he was the writer! It makes sense he'd be there for the opening night, though. My brother - who was my theatre +1 for the evening - was also rather pleased.
Edit: and is also Grand Nagus Zek in DSN! (Gossip Girl and Sex and the City I knew about. DSN slipped my mind completely. Woe. But also, yay!) *fangirls shamelessly*
It was a comped show for me, as it was first night and I am part of their target audience (or, rather, my friends are their target audience, and I am the person that's gonna tell them to go see it). All in all, it was an interesting but tiring experience. Clare Higgins is very good in delivering what is essentially a 90 minute monologue. The material is at times striking, amusing, and upsetting. A woman travelling to a poor country develops a fever and starts to question the motivation for her travels, and for her belief that what she's doing is good. It's good stuff, albeit marred by an over-reliance on clichéd imagery. Frequently people and objects are 'soaked in blood', and guilt is used somewhat overbearingly to force a reaction. Strangely, it's the humour that makes this work, elevating the material above that of a 90 minute navel-gazing session. It rings too close to home to be dismissed as that; the arguments used to justify the woman's lifestyle choices are the very same we all use, and it is the nervous, self-deprecating humour that lays that bare - not the descriptions of people suffering. At the end of the day, the audience leaves more interested in the wealthy traveller and her motivation than the nameless people she sees tortured and murdered. They have faded to a backdrop in her story.
*
On a side note, we had excellent seats in the stalls, and sitting a couple of rows in front of us was ... Wallace Shawn himself, who is, of course, Vizzini in The Princess Bride. Yes, I had to go look in imdb for that, because I recognised the face immediately but had no idea who the guy's name was... so was mildly surprised to realise that he was the writer! It makes sense he'd be there for the opening night, though. My brother - who was my theatre +1 for the evening - was also rather pleased.
Edit: and is also Grand Nagus Zek in DSN! (Gossip Girl and Sex and the City I knew about. DSN slipped my mind completely. Woe. But also, yay!) *fangirls shamelessly*