Professor Richard Myers, the great IVF innovator, is virtually a secular saint because of the thousands of babies he has created throughout his career. Now, his family gather to see him receive a lifetime achievement award.

This fractious group are more accustomed to debate than empathy, so it’s not long before the family home in the Upper West Side of Manhattan is once again alive with dispute: conflicting Thanksgiving memories, polarised opinions on investment banking, and how best to care for their ailing father. And crucially, who will inherit Richard’s wealth and Richard’s prestigious science institution?

Alexis Zegerman’s vivid, new play directed by Roxana Silbert is a thrilling portrait of a brilliantly dysfunctional family.

The Fever Syndrome is presented by special arrangement with Manhattan Theatre Club.

Alexis Zegerman was Pearson Writer-in-Residence at Hampstead in 2007, where her play Lucky Seven premiered in 2008. A Susan Smith Blackburn Prize finalist for The Steingolds (2011), her other plays include I Ran The World (2003), Killing Brando (2004) and Holy Sh!t (2018). Zegerman also wrote the screenplay for The Honeymoon Suite.

Hampstead’s Artistic Director Roxana Silbert directs her third Main Stage production, following The Haystack (2020) and ‘night, Mother (2021). Downstairs, she has recently directed Raya and Folk.

The cast features Lisa Dillon (Cranford, BBC One; Hapgood, Hampstead Theatre), Jake Fairbrother (Skyfall, EON Productions; Hamlet, National Theatre), Alexandra Gilbreath (Not Going Out, BBC One; The Provoked Wife, Royal Shakespeare Company), Robert Lindsay (My Family, BBC One; Anything Goes, Barbican), Sam Marks (Doctor Who, BBC One; Richard II, Royal Shakespeare Company), Bo Poraj (Miranda, BBC One; Raya, Hampstead Downstairs) and Alex Waldmann (The Mikvah Project, Orange Tree; Julius Caesar, Royal Shakespeare Company). They are joined by Nancy Allsop and Charlotte Pourret Wythe.

Playing from 19 March – 23 April, Hampstead Theatre

Book your tickets here.