The Fever
About the show
Performed in complete collaboration with the audience, this world-premiere piece examines how we assemble, organize, and care for the bodies around us. Part of the Public Theater's Under the Radar festival. More…
New York-based theater company 600 Highwaymen tests the limits of individual and collective responsibility, and our willingness to be there for one another. Who will you be when our eyes are on you? What will we see when we all look your way? This production is completely interactive as the audience becomes part of the show.
"We often pay lip service to the idea that theater is a sort of secular communal rite, but the description applies to 'The Fever,' a lovely, haunting meditation on human connection...Much of show is made up of exchanges that could almost be described as the kind of 'mixer games' made to foster fellowship at corporate retreats. I know: shudder! But in 'The Fever,' they are infused with a humble physical - and literary - poetry that scrapes away synthetic sentimentality." Full Review
"While the narrative lingers in the realm of the abstract, issues of identity, aging, loneliness, and isolation are cogently explored...There is almost no moment in the performance when one or more audience members aren’t performing along with the cast...There is lots of touching, a little giggling, and, surprisingly little resistance...The performance is so much about the magic of the mimetic and the incredible empathy this kind of doing can elicit." Full Review
"Browde and Silverstone are interested in citizen-performance...Here they turn almost completely to the audience for their casting needs. Formally, it's a beautiful inversion, but for me the piece itself had a claustrophobically sweet aspect. Browde and Silverstone deserve hearty applause for their creative restlessness within the new form they're carving out...If here things seem a touch too gentle and the writing a bit too clichéd, at least the iconoclastic approach is radical." Full Review
"Several problems crop up. First, they begin the show by hinting at characters and a situation...Then it’s dropped completely...As the final nail in the coffin, they then have a text read out that banally tells us what we just did and hopes for import...The cast chose to deliver most of their instructions/dialogue in a flat, affectless, style...Ritual can be powerful theater and there’s no need for 'story.' This was a scattershot, unsatisfying first draft, not a fully formed effort." Full Review
See it if this is a really incredible, deeply profound, 75 minutes that creates a community and a world out of a room of strangers. Go.
Don't see it if you truly can't stand audience participation or interaction. Although, understand its nothing like you've ever seen/participated in before.
Also Note that you are not asked to talk or speak as apart of the participa... Read more Read less
See it if you want to see a show that remarks beautifully on the foundation of a community holding itself up - with wonderful tech to help.
Don't see it if you can't stand audience participation. The audience /is/ the show, so if that scares you, definitely stay away.
See it if The company asks/risks the audience to BE the show. Suprisingly moving & at times profound as we realize how interdependent we truly are
Don't see it if Audience participation IS the show & while you can get away with not doing so, you become weirdly compelled to do so. Trust factor high
See it if you're open to a truly unique experience. You ARE the show. There's a hypnotic calming quality to the piece that's surprisingly moving.
Don't see it if you're looking for action, big laughs, a story, a set, or if you really hate interacting with strangers in front of other strangers.
Cast & Creatives (11)
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