Actors Repertory Theatre Luxembourg is proud to announce its next production: The Fever, by Wallace Shawn.

A play for one performer (originally Shawn himself) written in 1990, The Fever tells the story of a traveller whose journey to a poor country triggers a personal moral crisis. With searing language and Shawn’s trademark wit and humour, The Fever confronts and questions what it means to live in privilege in an era of economic disparity. In a January 2015 interview with Shawn during the play’s London revival, the Guardian described it as ‘a ferocious meditation on the inequities of global capitalism’.

Wallace Shawn

Shawn wrote The Fever to be performed by any actor, male or female, young or old. Actors Rep’s production will feature Christine Probst and Erik Abbott in alternating performances — offering audiences two different takes on this riveting piece.

The Fever will be presented as a café production at the popular Luxembourg Ville landmark Café Konrad (7, rue du Nord, 2229 Luxembourg). Audience members will be able to enjoy Konrad’s hospitality and order food and drinks from the menu before and after the show.

Performances will be October 12, 13, 15 and 19, 20, 22, at 8pm. Tickets are 20 € (Students 10 €) and will be available directly through Konrad’s. (Details on ordering tickets to come.)

Peter Zazzali will direct. Zazzali has directed at theatres including The Actor’s Playhouse and Manhattan Repertory Theatre in New York, New Jersey Repertory Theatre, and the Texas Shakespeare Festival.

Peter Zazzali

In 2015 he directed The Good Doctor at the Western Australia Academy for Performing Arts in Perth, Australia, and earlier this year directed a sold-out production of Waiting for Godot at the Gardens Theatre in Brisbane.

As an actor he has performed with theatres including The Acting Company, Target Margin Theatre, and the Utah Shakespeare Festival.

Zazzali is also well-known as an actor trainer and theatre scholar. Currently an Assistant Professor of Theatre at the University of Kansas, his book, Acting in the Academy: The History of Professional Actor Training in US Higher Education, was just published by Routledge.

Check out Zazzali’s website: http://peterzazzalidirector.com

Abbott is the Artistic Director of Actors Rep, most recently directing for the company the European premiere of Do You Want to Know a Secret? in March. He previously directed Greyhounds and Love Letters for Actors Rep, as well as our debut production, The Goat Or, Who is Sylvia?.

Erik Abbott

As an actor, he appeared opposite Probst in last year’s Flowers in the Desert, and has previously worked at, among others, the Guthrie Theater, the Charlotte Shakespeare Company, The Lost Colony, Theatre IV and the Theatre Exchange. He made his professional theatre debut as an actor (in the chorus of the musical Shenandoah) when he was fifteen and has worked on over one hundred productions.

He has taught acting, theatre history and communications courses at several campuses of the City University of New York (CUNY) and is a published theatre scholar.

Probst has performed in three shows for Actors Rep: Greyhounds, Flowers in the Desert, and Do You Want to Know a Secret?. She was in the first English-language production produced by the Ville de Luxembourg, Design for Living, at Théâtre des Capucins in 2008.

Christine Probst

In 2010 she was nominated for a Best Actress Award at the Festival of European Anglophone Theatrical Societies for playing the title role in David Mamet’s Jolly; the production also won the 1st place Founders’ Cup at the Festival. This past January she was in Mister Paradise and Other Rare Electrical Things Between People at Théâtre National du Luxembourg (TNL).

Probst was instrumental in establishing and directing Luxembourg’s first English-language Youth Theatre programme with the New World Theatre Club. She has also taught Theatre/Acting for Beginners classes for the Luxembourg Accueil and Lycee des Garçons in Esch-sur-Alzette.

Probst received her BFA in Acting from the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, and Abbott has a BFA in Acting from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. Zazzali has a BFA from the California Institute of Arts and an MFA from the Professional Theatre Training Programme at the University of Delaware. Both Zazzali and Abbott have PhDs in Theatre Studies from the CUNY Graduate Center.

Abbott and Probst in ‘Flowers in the Desert’

The Fever was originally performed by Shawn in an apartment on the Upper West Side in New York City. Shawn intended the piece to be one that could be performed anywhere, one of the qualities that makes it an excellent fit for a familiar and intimate setting such as Café Konrad. The play was revived in New York in 2007 and adapted by Shawn for a 2004 film version. The 2015 London production by the Almeida Theatre was staged in a suite at the Mayfair Hotel.

PLEASE NOTE CHANGES IN THE ACTORS’ INDIVIDUAL PERFORMANCE DATES:

Erik Abbott will perform October 12, 13 and 22.

Christine Probst will perform October 15, 19 and 20.

Actors Rep is thrilled to be collaborating with Café Konrad to present this vital and necessary play.