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Michael Cox reviews a 'fast-paced and frequently funny' production that's 'messy and inconsistent'.
What is Fever Dream: Southside? It's been a few days after attending the press night and I'm still not sure. It is a production that will surely split audiences—not only in whether they like it but, perhaps more interestingly, what it's actually about.
Is the play a celebration of multiculturalism or a critique on the current political system? Is it stark realism, epic theatre or modern parable? There's enough threaded through Douglas Maxwell’s script and Dominic Hill’s direction to allow multiple interpretations, and the hodgepodge of themes spread throughout (immigration, mental health, post-natal difficulties and economic hardship, to name but a few) pepper the production almost to excess.
And yet I find I cannot shake the production from my mind. Like a haunting dream, I keep reflecting on moments and find new ways to view them. Characters that seemed sympathetic while I was in the theatre now seem ridiculous, and the final call to arms keeps rolling back and forth in my mind as either an impassioned anthem or a cynical pact with the devil.
Hill’s production is nothing short of ambitious. Scenes race by at a ferocious pace and characters’ lives intermingle onstage in surprising, if not always convincing, ways. The company of nine actors and musicians are equally interesting and engaging, with Kirsty Stuart’s Demi and Martin McCormick’s Peter perhaps standing out as new parents who find themselves on individual paths of discovery and awakening.
Fast-paced and frequently funny, Fever Dream: Southside might be messy and inconsistent, but it is certainly never boring. It’s not the best production to grace the Citizens Theatre’s stage, but it just might be its most memorable for some time.
Fever Dream: Southside performs at Citizens Theatre until May 9, 2015.
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