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SPRINGWOOD

★★★

Hampstead Theatre

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SPRINGWOOD

Hampstead Theatre

★★★

“a sturdy bio-drama from a master in connecting the past to the present”

It’s 1939, war is in the air and we are in Hyde Park. But not in London. Hyde Park is the family estate of the Roosevelts where their sprawling country home Springwood is. President Franklin D and his wife Eleanor, together – uncomfortably – with his mother, the actual owner of Springwood, are about to host the first-ever visit of a reigning British monarch to the United States. A picnic is planned. It seems a trivial detail, but how will the royal couple get on with hot dogs and beer?

Richard Nelson’s new play is enjoying its world premiere at Hampstead Theatre and it’s a suitable place and audience for this clever dramatisation of a pivotal moment in history. It’s job is to explore relationships. Upfront is the ‘special’ relationship between the UK and the US which this moment in time may enshrine. The US was late into the first world war. Can the King George V and Queen Elizabeth count on that country’s support again should conflict erupt in Europe?

Also in the foreground of the drama are the multiple personal relationships: the President and his wife; Eleanor and Mother; the King and Queen; and Franklin D Roosevelt’s other ‘special’ relationships. Under all of this lie the more abstract relationships: between leaders and their people, then the same leaders with their respective disabilities.

Springwood is based on Nelson’s own screenplay for the 2012 film ‘Hyde Park on Hudson’, which had been observed to be good potentially for presentation on stage. After Stanley Tucci withdrew as director (too busy) Nelson stepped in. Given his own history of directing his own plays as well as writing interconnected family-cycle plays, this was a sound decision. His ensemble-naturalism background suits this material which could easily become a soap opera in the wrong hands.

It’s a strong ten-person cast, with Robert Lindsay and Jemma Redgrave secure in their roles as the President and Eleanor. To my mind, however, Andrew Havill as King George (‘Bertie’) gives the outstanding performance. There were moments when one could swear King Charles had taken on the part, so good was his characterisation. The slight physical awkwardness, the whisper of Bertie’s ever-present but mostly hidden stutter, the sense of someone who really understands the symbolism of the hot dog moment, unlike his wife (Rebecca Night) to whom this has to be carefully explained by Eleanor.

The creative team have chosen to set the play ‘in the round’ with a dark black background into which the figures melt. This enables us to focus on the conversations which are at the core of the work. Scene changes are punctuated by the actors moving brown furniture round. Rather strangely the play opens with all the characters onstage breaking up and then rearranging the set.

But then this is the main action and without it we might find the play a little static. It is a subtle piece important to pay as much attention to what is not being said – and when – as to what is outspoken. Oft-repeated is ‘the walls are very thin’ and somehow this becomes a mantra for the unsaid and the overheard in people’s lives. And there are also many moments of laugh-out-loud humour . Bertie’s outburst when his wife accuses him of being like his brother, when he threatens to shove hot dogs ‘up his nostrils and in his ears’ as well as in his mouth is a comedy gem.

Devotees of Hampstead Theatre will enjoy the wordiness, the history and the focus on what is revealed in conversation. It might not play as well in a less literary world or among people less interested in the history of diplomatic relations between the US and the UK. This is a sturdy bio-drama from a master in connecting the past to the present, which it undoubtedly does



SPRINGWOOD

Hampstead Theatre

Reviewed on 29th June 2026

by Louise Sibley

Photography by Manuel Harlan


 

 

 

 

SPRINGWOOD

SPRINGWOOD

SPRINGWOOD

THE FEVER SYNDROME

The Fever Syndrome

★★★

Hampstead Theatre

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THE FEVER SYNDROME

The Fever Syndrome

Hampstead Theatre

Reviewed – 5th April 2022

★★★

 

“there isn’t a weak performance in the whole cast”

 

Alexis Zegerman’s new play, The Fever Syndrome, set in New York, is about a driven, intellectual family dealing with life changing illness. Front and centre in the drama is patriarch Richard Myers, living with the last stages of Parkinson’s. His only grandchild, Lily, suffers from a mysterious genetic disease characterized by high fevers. In both cases, though in very different ways, both grandfather and grandchild are afflicted by diseases that are literally attacking their chances at life. It turns out that their family, rife with internecine rivalry, is also attacking people’s chances at life, despite the display of liberal politics and cutting edge business ideas. Zegerman’s play does capture much of the authenticity of American family life, at least in New York City, but many Americans may feel that it takes more than a dogged commitment to the Mets baseball team to make Richard Myers a truly sympathetic character. The Fever Syndrome is disappointing, ultimately, since it is unclear who we are supposed to be rooting for.

The Fever Syndrome is a long play. Unnecessarily long. It’s the sort of drama that Netflix would divide into several episodes, and we’d all be grateful for the break between the intense scenes that characterize unfinished business between father and children. Scenes that draw in partners — both established, and new to the family dynamics — and all the children, past and present, that present in flickering movements, both real and surreal. In the constant upheaval, it’s easy to lose track of the event that has gathered the family together, and which marks the starting point for this sprawling plot. Richard Myers has been awarded the equivalent of a Nobel Prize for his work in IVF (which produced the so called “test tube babies”) allowing infertile couples to have children of their own. In the living room of Richard’s New York brownstone is a space dedicated to all the families he has helped to create. It is ironic, therefore, that his own family is constantly on the brink of disintegration. The Fever Syndrome is, at its heart, about a groundbreaking scientist who brought all these children into the world but couldn’t raise his own. And despite the scientific gloss — the references to RIchard’s work, and later, the diseases that are systematically and relentlessly destroying his life and Lily, his granddaughter’s life —this is what the play is about. Another American family, rent from within by toxic parent child relationships, and playing out psycho-logical dramas that hint at Sophoclean proportions, on their living room floors. This is overly familiar territory, despite all the contemporary trimmings.

Director Roxana Silbert has assembled a cast brimming with talent, and a terrific design team for The Fever Syndrome. Robert Lindsay, as Richard, does, like the character he plays, award worthy work. Lindsay plays the fractious father and Parkinson’s sufferer so well that it is easy to forget that he manages comedy, and musicals, just as effortlessly. He is well matched by Alexandra Gilbreath, playing Richard’s third wife, Megan. Both actors are completely in command of the layered, complex characters that Zegerman has created. But then, there isn’t a weak performance in the whole cast. The adult children, Dot (Lisa Dillon), Thomas (Alex Waldmann) and Anthony (Sam Marks) play out their rivalries in ways that shift the audience’s sympathies from one to the other like watching an intense tennis match. Their partners Nate (Bo Poraj) and Philip (Jake Fairbrother) watch from the sidelines until they can take no more. And at the still centre of the family storm is teenager Lily (Nancy Allsop) and, from time to time, the mysterious young Dot (Charlotte Pourret Wythe) who can only be seen by Richard. The set, designed by Lizzie Clachan, is also award worthy, making the most of the Hampstead Theatre’s stage to create a fitting backdrop to this complicated family’s dynamics. There is much to admire in this production, despite its length, and the lack of a satisfying ending.

 

Reviewed by Dominica Plummer

Photography by Ellie Kurttz

 


The Fever Syndrome

Hampstead Theatre until 30th April

 

Recently reviewed at this venue:
Big Big Sky | ★★★★ | August 2021
Night Mother | ★★★★ | October 2021
The Two Character Play | ★★★★ | July 2021
The Forest | ★★★ | February 2022

 

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