Plays written by Alexis Zegerman:
THE FEVER SYNDROME
HOLY SH!T
THE STEINGOLDS
PORTRAIT OF A MAN
THE SUMMER SET (AFTER GORKY)
SHOUT
Synopses:
The Fever Syndrome – A thrilling portrait of the brilliantly dysfunctional Myers family. 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 brownstone in the Upper West Side of Manhattan is once again alive with dispute: conflicting Thanksgiving memories, polarised opinions on what to do with the house, and how best to care for their ailing father. Meanwhile, Lily, Richard’s teenage granddaughter, is suffering with a ‘fever syndrome,’ a rare disease caused by a mutation in her genes, that can make her very sick. Everything spirals with Lily’s presence in the house, and her mother Dot’s desperate need to get the help and money she needs for Lily’s care. The family reunion becomes survival of the fittest.
Holy Sh!t – What if you could send your kid to a really good parochial school – private education, for a fraction of the cost? What if you were an atheist, but you could totally fake your faith, like so many parents do? And, okay, you might be Jewish…but is anybody really going to be able to tell? What’s a few trips to church? A bit of a cosy-up to the parish priest to ensure you better your chances of a place? Nobody’s actually going to hell. Nobody’s going to tell. Nobody will get hurt. Simone and Sam want to get their child into the best local parochial school. It is high achieving, very oversubscribed and places highly coveted. They also happen to be atheist and Jewish. Their friends, Juliet and Nick, a bi-racial couple, have a daughter the same age, and also want the same school for her. They have faith – or at least they did. Juliet and Nick are beginning to lose their faith in a system that pits one child against another.
The Steingolds – A couple’s relationship starts to crack when their close friends announce they are divorcing. With a newly-refurbished apartment and their twin daughters away on a French exchange with school, Lauren and David invite Teddy and Liz over for dinner to show off their Quooker tap. When Liz announces that she and Teddy are consciously-uncoupling – Lauren and David hold each other that little bit tighter. But as the Steingolds’ divorce gets nasty, it’s like Lauren and David have been infected with doubt, and all of their lives start to unravel.
Portrait of a Man – In 1962, the abstract expressionist artist, Elaine de Kooning, travelled to the Winter White House, Miami, to paint a portrait of the President, from life. Two months after the Cuban Missile Crisis, midway through his first term, JFK needs a portrait. Presidents have portraits. But he doesn’t want a gray-suited, formal one. He wants a wholly modern portrait to represent a New Frontier. Elaine de Kooning’s artistic career has been eclipsed by her husband, Willem de Kooning. She is a rare female voice in a very male abstract expressionist world. She’s promiscuous, she’s fiercely talented, and she paints fast – ‘the fastest brush in the East.’ And Jack Kennedy won’t sit still because of a back injury – an injury from the war, he says. This is Elaine’s last chance of real success. JFK wants a portrait, but does he actually want to be seen in the way that Elaine will see him? Will she be able to capture the president? Will she be allowed to do the seeing? Can a woman be the most powerful person in a room? Inspired by real-life events, this is a play about politics and art and power. A game of cat and mouse.
The Summer Set (After Gorky) – A radical, contemporary adaptation of Maxim Gorky’s Dachniki (Summerfolk). Set amongst the wealthy, second homeowners in the Hamptons, the action largely unfolds in the home of Varya and Sergei Bassov in August. Varya has been longing for something to happen. But the arrival of an old obsession, once highly-acclaimed novelist, Jacob Shalimov, tilts the Bassovs’ privileged, but quietly-screaming, existence off its axis. Then a fall-out with a seasonal handyman, Pustobaika, over a payment for fixing the back-up generator, leads to something far more frightening. A storm is coming. So is a revolution. The Summer Set goes beyond an ‘eat-the-rich’ narrative. It asks us how America got to this place, and where on earth we go from here? Who, if anyone, is captaining the boat? Or are we all drowning?
Shout – In a world full of words, how can Dana be herself when she can’t speak? Dana has selective mutism, but that doesn’t stem her vivid imagination. Because it’s not just the noise you make that makes you who you are. Shout is a funny, moving drama about anxiety, celebrating difference, and finding your voice. It wonders what exactly it takes to overcome anxiety and cope with mental health issues when you’re a teenager.
Bio:
Alexis Zegerman is an award-winning writer, based in London. Her work in theatre includes Shout at the Royal National Theatre. The Fever Syndrome (Alfred P. Sloan/MTC commission) and Lucky Seven at Hampstead Theatre, London; Holy Sh!t at Kiln Theatre (directed by Indhu Rubasingham); The Steingolds at the National Theatre Studio (Susan Smith Blackburn Prize finalist); Killing Brando at Òran Mór for A Play A Pie and A Pint and Paines Plough at the Young Vic; short play, I Ran the World for the Royal Court Theatre; and Marriage and Noise at Soho Theatre. Her play Portrait of a Man (a Bobby Olsen/MTC commission) will premiere in London in 2027. She is currently under commission with Hampstead Theatre. Film includes screenplays for Arthur’s Whiskey (starring Diane Keaton and David Harewood) and The Honeymoon Suite (Palm Springs Film Festival, New York Short Film Festival). BBC Radio includes plays Déjà Vu (Prix Europa Special Commendation), Jump, The SingingButler, Are You Sure? and Ronnie Gecko (Richard Imison Award) and podcast Cold Tapes for Spotify. The Fever Syndrome was adapted for audio by LA Theater Works.
As an actor, Alexis Zegerman has worked across stage and screen, at the Royal Court, National Theatre, and most recently in the original West End cast of Tom Stoppard’s Leopoldstadt, directed by Patrick Marber. She won a British Independent Film Award and was nominated for a Critics’ Circle Award for best supporting actress for her role in Mike Leigh’s Happy-Go-Lucky.