Some say the global population is divided into the haves and the have-nots. Wallace Shawn seems to think so, since one of his recurring themes -- possibly his most insistent -- is the guilt of the haves. Nowhere does he expound his position more masterfully than in his monologue The Fever, currently being revived by The New Group. It's as if Shawn were playing a cello of rare quality. Throughout the not-so-subtly accusatory elegy, he delivers some exquisitely constructed prose in which harshly descriptive phrase follows harshly descriptive phrase.

The set-up couldn't be simpler. After sharing an on-stage glass of champagne with those audience members who care to indulge before taking their[...]