The Fever Syndrome - Hampstead

[Mark]

Begins previews tonight!

"Professor Richard Myers, the great IVF innovator, is virtually a secular saint because of the thousands of babies he has created throughout his career. Now, his family gather to see him receive a lifetime achievement award.



This fractious group are more accustomed to debate than empathy, so it’s not long before the family home in the Upper West Side of Manhattan is once again alive with dispute: conflicting Thanksgiving memories, polarised opinions on investment banking, and how best to care for their ailing father. And crucially, who will inherit Richard’s wealth and Richard’s prestigious science institution?"

Anyone going? 

[showgirl]

Yes & was looking forward to tomorrow's matinee but "rescheduled" which was annoying. Definitely one for a matinee though as turns out to be 2 hours 40!

[andrew]

Not much chatter on here about this play it seems. I thought it was very middling, very very similar to many other "complicated family with issues come together at the same house for Christmas/Thanksgiving/Easter/Funeral/Wedding". There is some fresh stuff in there along the lines of IVF and science and birth but not enough to justify the play in its current form. Robert Lindsay chews the scenery a bit but is entertaining whilst doing so, he retains the exact same accent from Anything Goes. The set I liked as well, it's a good set. I suppose another thing to give it kudos for is a fairly sensible, proportional and largely accurate portrayal of a few different medical conditions. The writer has either done her homework or has personal experience of these things, and it's worth remarking when serious conditions are reflected fairly on stage and not used as superficial mechanisms for drama.

So there are moments of good stuff, but it is very similar to a lot of other plays you have seen, most of which have done this better.

[mkb]

I was thoroughly enjoying this last night, until the final scene, which felt like it had been written by someone else. The well-rounded and entirely believable characters suddenly morph into behaviour completely at odds with the people we have come to know over the preceding 150 minutes, seemingly just to have some sort of conclusion. It didn't ring true; it rather jarred.

SPOILER: Click to show

The characters suddenly start being pleasant to one another, and one character is revealed to have been lying throughout about financial investments in a way that is not credible.

Which was a pity, since The Fever Syndrome is excellently written and directed until that point. There's not a weak link in the cast, and Lindsay is on top form as the patriarch with Parkinson's disease. Writer Alexis Zegerman successfully avoids the Stoppard trait of having experts speak science as though they have just Googled it; here, the family members' dialogue on medical matters is convincing.

The play's title refers primarily, not to the father, but to a Periodic Fever Syndrome (PFS) condition endured by one of his grand-kids. It also acts as an unsubtle metaphor of the effects on the extended family.

There is a lot going on at any one point including some concurrent dinner conversations, and, despite its length, the piece moves at a fast pace. I found myself chortling regularly at the foibles and mannerisms, particularly the put-upon son-in-law Nate who always seems to say the wrong thing. But, let's be clear, this is no comedy; it's quite grim and serious. Even the interruption of a jolly Danny Kaye song at the piano is a mocking attack on Nate.

The downstairs of the Myers family house forms the stage-level set, with assorted bedrooms, and a ladder to a loft behind and above. Note that the front corners of the Stalls will have a restricted view of the action in some of these recessed rooms. From centre front, the view was good, but the bed at the back of one room was hidden.

You could argue that there is little originality plot-wise here, and that might be true, but Zegerman manages to coalesce an insightful discourse on a little-known condition into a worthwhile watch.

I'd reckon the small Hampstead auditorium was only about three-quarters full, which means that a lot of people are missing out on a production that deserves an audience. It could do with a better ending though.

Four stars.

Act 1: 19:33-20:48
Act 2: 21:10-22:18

[dlevi]

I saw this last night and didn't mind it. I didn't exactly like it, because all too often I found myself thinking of other family plays - from August: Osage County to The Little Foxes . The Fever Syndrome, while not boring often feels long. The final third of the play is a serious of confrontations between the various characters which felt very much as if the playwright needed to tie up every loose end. And as each confrontation occurred I felt as if a box had been ticked. And of course it all had to come down to Robert Lindsay's summing up aria which was frankly unrealistic and out of character. There is a slickness and ease to the writing for which I was grateful, but there were also lines that were clearly calculated to be "laugh lines" which simply weren't funny. And the references to the NY Mets were weak and dated. One interesting quirky thing was a reference to the second (US) national tour of "Sunset Boulevard" which not only name checked Petula Clark but also Lewis Cleale. I'm guessing the author must be a friend of his.

[cavocado]

I'd forgotten about the Mets jokes, but I also found them a bit weak and annoying. It was very well-written about the illnesses - Robert Lindsay's character confronting his own deterioration, the impact on family relationships of a very dominant parent degenerating physically and mentally, the anxiety around the granddaughter's illness; and the medical science info was worked into the dialogue very well. But the basic family drama felt a bit trite, and there was just too much crammed into the script, to the point where more than one conversation was going on during the dinner and I couldn't hear what was being said. The final tying up of loose ends felt rushed and quite unlikely. Solid performances all round, and I liked the set very much.

[Mark]

Saw the play last week and will agree with a lot of the comments here, and I think "middling" a good word to use. You kind of get to the end and think... right ok, there we go, nothing much really to discuss. The ending wasn't believable and all very rushed to reach a conclusion. That said, there are some good offers about so it's worth seeing.

[thistimetomorrow]

Meh, this was ok. Plot wise it was so so, the acting was alright, but I wasn't always convinced by some of their accents. I just really struggled to get invested in any of the characters, they were all so unlikeable. I wasn't a fan of the way the characters kept talking over each other and holding multiple conversations at once, because then it just became a jumble of noise and that scene was basically lost to me. The set design was cool though - I enjoyed all the little rooms stacked on top of each other, although it felt a little claustrophobic at times. I also wasn't a fan of the scene change music. It felt very much like a forced 'end scene' as if someone has literally tried to make it as obvious as possible that the action is now moving from this room and this pairing to this other room with this other pairing now JUST IN CASE YOU DIDNT NOTICE. The presentation of the various illnesses seemed very realistic and well researched though.

[joem]

Agree with the gist of the comments above. This is a sub-Miller American family play - written by a British playwright! Not entirely sure why she would want to write what is a very distinct and (despite the shared language) pretty foreign genre but maybe Alexis Zegerman has first-hand knowledge of this that I know nothing about.

Excellent looking "dolls house" stage on several levels but watch out if you're on the seats at the end of rows, you might have difficulty seeing the upper levels. Very well acted throughout, some issues with the credibility of some of the characters' actions and with some of the dialogue, more suited to a novel than a play - people don't really speak so self-consciously cleverly in everyday conversations. Parts of the resolution trundle towards you from a great distance.

Still a decent watch though and the Hampstead is priced very reasonably.

A grouse. The programme contains a really daft essay from a supposed scientist. Humans are not amoebae or termites.

[thistimetomorrow]

Apr 21, 2022 23:02:21 GMT joem said:

maybe Alexis Zegerman has first-hand knowledge of this that I know nothing about.

In the program she talks about how she's married to an American and half her family is American, which is why she feels comfortable writing in this genre!

[orchidman]

Like The Forest before it the set is a lot better than the script.

Comparing it to Arthur Miller and Tennessee Williams in the publicity is misguided and only highlights its shortcomings. They have a world view to express that finds poetic expression in their signature plays. This is palpably the product of a second rate mind with no real insight to express. 2 hours 40 minutes including an interval of no real insight, topped with an inauthentic ending. The characters are believable, the dialogue is good enough, but really I don't know why this play exists. We seem to have a glut of playwrights who have learnt solid technique without developing an understanding of what makes stories worth telling.

[showgirl]

I'm still looking forward to seeing this; I enjoyed Alexis Zegerman's previous play, Holy sh*t at the Kiln and I like talky, discursive plays about families, often dysfunctional, so am hoping the varying opinions are a question of personal taste. It would be a shame if after so promising a start, this wasn't seen as the progression people expected from the writer, who certainly impressed me and left me keen to see more of her work.

[Dave B]

Pretty much in line with everyone above, I think 'middling' describes it, unfortunately, really well. It was fine for a Saturday afternoon matinee with tickets on offer. Great set, solid performances and occasionally really interesting but just rushes into an ending that doesn't quite work out.