Skip to main content
1991

The Fever

Written by Wallace Shawn

Play Details

Context

Artistic Director
Max Stafford Clark

Dates Performed

Monday 7th January 1991
Jerwood Theatre Upstairs

Play Details

Synopsis

In a feverish monologue, a privileged Western traveller wrestles with their complicity in global inequality and injustice while staying in a hotel in a poor country.

The unnamed narrator, struck by a sudden illness in a foreign hotel room, embarks on a stream-of-consciousness exploration of their life of comfort and the stark contrast with the poverty surrounding them. As their fever rises, they confront the violence and exploitation that underpin their privileged existence, grappling with guilt, self-justification, and the possibility of radical change. Through vivid recollections and imagined scenarios, the narrator dissects the nature of wealth, class, and moral responsibility in a world of vast inequality.

Wallace Shawn’s intense, thought-provoking monologue challenges audiences to examine their own role in global systems of oppression. By blurring the lines between reality and hallucination, The Fever creates a claustrophobic, dream-like atmosphere that forces a reckoning with uncomfortable truths about Western privilege and the human cost of comfort.

Director(s)

Wallace Shawn

Other productions

Cast & Creative

Cast

Wallace Shawn

You may also like...

Sizwe Bansi is Dead

Sizwe Bansi is Dead

1973

Athol Fugard , John Kani , Winston Ntshona

Love and Information

Love and Information

2012

Caryl Churchill

Jerusalem

Jerusalem

2009

Jez Butterworth