<b>CROCODILE FEVER</b> Andrews Theatre/Irish Classical Theatre Company SpeakupWNY | Buffalo NY and Buffalo News

Through June 15
CROCODILE FEVER Andrews Theatre/Irish Classical Theatre Company

What?
That was my reaction, after seeing the Irish Classical�s production of Meghan Tyler�s tangled �Crocodile Fever.�To set the framework, the story takes place in a rural area of Britain�s Northern Ireland, County Armagh, �bandit country,� during the continuing �The Troubles.�
We hear constant sounds of British military helicopters.
It�s the home of Peter �Da� Devlin (Christopher Guilmet) and his daughter Alannah (Cassie Cameron)
The play opens with the other daughter, Fianna (Anna Krempholtz), breaking into the home through a window when Alannah won�t let her in.
All through the play, we pick up details of what has been going on, starting with why Fianna has been gone for 11 years.
With a new generation in charge at the ICTC, �Irish miserabilism� moves forward to today from the plays in the days of the Easter Rebellion and the Irish Civil War.
Alannah and Fianna have been hiding a secret over the years, which trickles out in this play, forcing them to confront what happened when they were young, as they dance and complain through a haze of liquor and music from the Eighties.
This is a diseased family, filled with evil and illness and a refusal to confront bad things.
Fianna proves to have spent most of her missing years in prison, to emerge and join the IRA, something reflected in the large revolver she carries.
Da is around, pounding on the floor or the wall for service and to shut down the noise in the main part of the house.
He�s confined to a wheelchair.
It takes much of the play to find out why he�s in that wheelchair.
The play takes a while to explain why Alannah is in the home taking care of her awful and evil father.
Cassie Cameron�s seriously disturbed Alannah is the heart of the play, while Krempholtz�s Fianna performance is far too acrobatic for the situation, compounded by her deep accent.
Guilmet�s Da and his secondary character is playing an awful person, perhaps compounded by direction from Keelie A. Sheridan.
There�s also Jake Hayes British soldier who arrives to search the Devlin house.
Bandit Country�remember.
It�s all very tangled and confused, possibly reflecting the Northern Ireland of four decades ago when there were problems of every sort, until the Good Friday Agreement settled things down.
All the way through �Crocodile Fever,� you must listen very carefully through the accents to understand how complicated this all is and what led to the three disturbed individuals in the South Armagh house.
As far as the crocodile is concerned, you are on your own.
If you like a tangled Irish story with one really strong performance (Cameron), head down to the ICTC for �Crocodile Fever� and remember when you leave, there are plenty of bars and restaurants to ponder what you just saw.

A.W.