←Recommendations of Fever Dream

I'm always impressed with a Prillaman script, but I'm blown away by how he so deftly captured a moment before it even happened... yet this is so much more than that... It's so many things. The silence once Ericka reenters the apartment after the first hospital scene... and then all the places it goes from there, while staying in one place (for the most part)... well done! Is there life after? I think so.

One often wonders how their mind will be affected if they're placed in a stressful, unfamiliar situation. With this play, we no longer have to wonder. Erika, forced into quarantine, questions what is real and what isn't. And we're placed right in there with her. This mind-bending play reminds me of Jennifer Haley's work, and many other pieces that have you thinking about what is real and what isn't, and how that line is often razor thin or even obliterated.

The way this play is set up is incredibly well done. I was smiling away thinking about all the times I've struggled to find something entertaining to watch and then WHAM! From that point onwards you're help captivated by the tragic and terrifying circumstances Erika finds herself in. The writer provides a un-nerving but very realistic about how our minds can be affected in the darkest and most difficult of circumstances. The style of the piece draws you in in a similar way to reality TV, desperate to know what happens next! You'll feel and be fascinated!

“The mind is its own place, and in itself can make a Heaven of Hell, a Hell of Heaven.” So it goes in Paradise Lost, but I can’t think of a modern play that more perfectly illustrates Milton's words than FEVER DREAM. Erika the English major’s journey inward rings true, and Yes! you fear for her soul. I love the technical wizardry of this play, its frightening use of time, the interplay between worlds of film and stage, and the assured and comic dialogue. Daniel Prillaman is a phenomenal talent who always makes you want to read more!

It's easy to look at this play as a "pandemic" or "quarantine" play. But it's much more than that. It's about how we are social and creative creatures. If you cut us off from socializing, we get creative. Not always in the most healthy ways, but even through the bad movie that is a thread throughout the show, we see creativity is our way to reach out to others and share our inner most selves. Storytelling is an ancient way of connecting and this story connects very deeply.

Prillaman had me from the opening, frank discussions between the characters. Then he pitches us into a nightmare that's even more unsettling because it's all too plausible. It certainly hits in a different way now, in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic.
If you weren't already a Prillman fan before reading this (I was), I strongly suspect this will make you one. God, I love how he does so much even in his quietest moments.
Prillaman says he doesn't know exactly what this play is. I'm pretty sure, Daniel, what we're looking at here is an instant classic. Well done.