The Fever Audiobook By Wallace Shawn cover art

The Fever

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The Fever

By: Wallace Shawn
Narrated by: Lili Taylor
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What’s the cost of comfort? In The Fever, playwright, actor, and cultural icon Wallace Shawn (My Dinner with André, The Designated Mourner) captures the crisis of conscience of a privileged American traveler visiting a war-torn country. Faced with the disparity between her rarified world and the real world, she can’t help but wonder if she’s part of the solution or part of the problem.

Three-time Emmy Award nominee Lili Taylor (Six Feet Under, American Crime) stars in this profoundly engaging and provocative journey, directed by The New Group’s founding artistic director Scott Elliott.

Creative Producer: The New Group

Portions of this audiobook contain mature language. Listener discretion is advised.

©2022 Wallace Shawn (P)2022 AO Media LLC Drama & Plays United States World Literature Thought-Provoking
Wallace Shawn
Scott Elliott

About the Creator

Wallace Shawn's plays include Marie and Bruce, The Music Teacher (opera with Allen Shawn, composer), Aunt Dan And Lemon, The Fever, The Designated Mourner, Grasses Of A Thousand Colors, and Evening at the Talk House. As an actor, he has appeared on stage in David Rabe's Hurlyburly and many of his own plays. He appeared in Manhattan, Radio Days, My Dinner With Andre, Clueless, Vanya on 42ND Street, A Master Builder, and Rifkin's Festival, among other films, and on television he appeared in The Cosby Show, Star Trek Deep Space Nine, Gossip Girl, Mozart In The Jungle, and Young Sheldon.

About the Director

Scott Elliott is the founding artistic director of The New Group theater and New Group Off-Stage, a new multi-media division of the company. He recently directed the premiere work for Off-Stage, a film of Waiting For Godot with Ethan Hawke and John Leguizamo. Next for New Group he will direct Black No More, a new musical by John Ridley and Tarik "Black Thought" Trotter. The Fever is proudly Scott’s seventh collaboration with Wallace Shawn and his fourth with Lili Taylor.

About the Performer

Lili Taylor is a multifaceted award-winning actor who has conquered film, television, and stage. She is currently in production on the Amazon Studios mystery drama series Outer Range starring opposite Josh Brolin for Plan B Entertainment. She can most recently be seen in Braden King’s The Evening Hour, as well as the independent feature Paper Spiders. She also starred in the acclaimed HBO series Perry Mason, as well as the Netflix series Chambers opposite Uma Thurman, and Ciaran Foy’s Eli, also for Netflix. Lili recently wrapped production on the independent feature The Winter House.
Lili’s accolades include a Golden Globe win for her performance in Robert Altman’s Short Cuts as well as nominations for three Primetime Emmys as an ‘Outstanding Lead Actress in a Limited Series or a Movie’ for American Crime, and as an ‘Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series’ in both Six Feet Under and The X Files. She has also won an Independent Spirit Award for ‘Best Supporting Female’ in Girls Town
.On film, she’s best known for her work in a plethora of independent classics such as Mary Harron’s I Shot Andy Warhol, Robert Altman’s Short Cuts, Stephen Frears’ High Fidelity, and Nancy Savoca’s Dogfight and Household Saints. She also starred in such fan favorites as Mystic Pizza and Say Anything. Additional credits include the critically acclaimed Girlstown, Robert Altman’s Ready to Wear (Pret-a-Porter), The Conjuring, The Nun, Michael Mann’s Public Enemies, and Antoine Fuqua’s Brooklyn's Finest.
On television, she portrayed the Emmy nominated Anne Blaine/Nancy Straumberg/Claire Coates on John Ridley’s American Crime opposite Regina King and Timothy Hutton. She also had recurring roles on the Emmy nominated shows Hemlock Grove and Almost Human and the Golden Globe winning HBO series Six Feet Under opposite Peter Krause and Michael C. Hall. On stage, Lili was most recently the lead in the Broadway production of Marvin's Room opposite Janeane Garofalo as well as the Three Sisters opposite Paul Giamatti in the original Broadway cast, and in John Guare’s dark comedy Landscape of the Body at the Williamstown Theatre Festival. Lili studied theatre at the famed Piven Theatre Workshop in Illinois.

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Featured Article Best of the Year The 10 Best Audible Theater Listens of 2022
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Lili nails the tone with discovery rather than blame and as a result we are left to ponder. Exquisite writing comes to life.

Captivating

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more of random thoughts on a specific topic then any kind of story. that's not bad just not what I was looking for.

more of a poem than a story

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Compelling and thought provoking. Describes many charitable thoughts and feelings within most of us.

I recommend

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I've Loved Lili Taylor's work ever since the the first independent film I've watched her in. She did a great job with a less than interesting story. I actually listened to it twice because I wanted to like it and I thought maybe I missed something, but there wasn't anything really to miss.If it weren't for her I'd probably only give this one star all the way

I love Lili Taylor, but this story wasn't great.

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Not an easy listen, very worth. Made me think about what we take for granted, and how we make decisions to keep taking them for granted.

Amazing

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An American born woman travels to a poverty-stricken country in hopes to find a way to help. In the safety of her hotel room, she gazes out the window and reflects on what she sees: poverty, war and inequality.
We hear her inner thoughts on the situations at hand. And she asks herself the same think we’ve all wondered at some point: are we truly helping solve the problem or are we just a part of the issue? We who live in countries with more privileges take a lot of our daily lives for granted. We have a tendency to want to help but with no idea how to truly make a difference.

Inner monologue

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It is disturbing that our lot in life is determined by pure chance; almost completely determined by where and to whom we are born. I’m blessed to have been born in a country that is not run by an evil despot where the government takes most of the resources while their citizens suffer, a country where I have many freedoms. Compared to a huge percentage of the world I am wealthy, but I live month to month; one crisis and I could lose everything. The way economics work it is much more likely I will fall into poverty than become a millionaire.

Could I give more of my money away than I do? Sure; however, you can look around and see that it is questionable how much it helps. Does it get to the right people or do the corrupt governments take it? If it gets to the people do they even know what to do with it so that it can really help them? It is sad to see so much poverty and suffering, but me giving away all I’ve earned just adds me to the problem; it wouldn’t be enough to pull anyone out.

Thought provoking

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Stunning. This piece asks huge and necessary questions for this moment. It’s dense, demanding the listener engage. In a world of too easily digestible junk food, this is a wonderful feast that demands to be shared. More than worth the work to digest this work.

A Must Listen

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This story, a bit confusing at first, really made me pause and think about social classes, capitalism, socialism, haves and have not. Why is privilege given to some and not others? What do we "deserve" our high status (or low status). This is an ugly, hard look... but worth while!

Thought Provoking

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The story is an expose on humankind's narcissistic self absorption, even when the pain and suffering of others is presented to him with choices to help others.

HAPPY the MAN..

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