A storm is brewing in a quiet Northern Irish farmhouse…
One sister’s devout, the other’s a disaster. The 80s are in full swing and the past is clawing its way back – ugly, loud, alive.
Written by Irish actor-playwright Meghan Tyler, Crocodile Fever is a riotous dark comedy that refuses to behave. This is sisterhood at full tilt: sharp-tongued and fuelled by Taytos, booze, and buried rage.
After premiering to critical acclaim at Edinburgh’s Traverse Theatre in 2019, the play now makes its London premiere in a brand-new production starring the playwright in the leading role of Fianna. Get ready for big laughs, bigger chaos, and no clean endings.
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Running time
2 hours (including interval) -
Age guidance
16+ -
Content warnings
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Discounts
Concessions available
Pay What You Can Tuesdays
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Captioned performance
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Relaxed performance
Praise for previous productions of Crocodile Fever
“An explosive dark comedy... ferociously feminist”
“Quentin Tarantino would be jealous”
“Astounding... A smack in the face in all of the best ways possible”
“This play is a bloody masterpiece in every sense, the dialogue pinging around the space, laughter dying in your throat”
“Gleefully dark and gory comedy”
Rehearsal Photos
The Company
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Meghan Tyler
Fianna
Meghan Tyler
Fianna
Meghan Tyler is an award-winning writer and actor from Newry, trained at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland. Stage Credits include The Importance of Being Earnest (Lyric Theatre, Belfast), Aurora (Prime Cut ), A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Lyric Theatre, Belfast), The Gap Year (Lyric Theatre, Belfast), Pride and Prejudice *Sort Of* (West End &UK Tour), A Streetcar Named Desire (Lyric Theatre, Belfast), Variant, The Persians, The Weir Sisters (A Play, A Pie and A Pint), Medicine (Off The Middle with The Hope Theatre), The Merchant of Venice (Shakespeare’s Globe) The Crucible (Royal Lyceum Edinburgh) A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Two Gentlemen of Verona (Guildford Shakespeare Company), Hamlet (Citizens Theatre, Glasgow) Secret Show 1 (Blood of the Young/Tron Theatre), Lovers, Look Back in Anger (Cumbernauld Theatre), Nothing to be Done (Setkani/Encounter). Film and TV Credits: Hope Street (BBC/Britbox), Almost Never (BBC), Shetland (BBC/ITV), Shrapnel (GMAC Film), Ballywalter (Empire Street Productions).
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Rachael Rooney
Alannah
Rachael Rooney
Alannah
Rachael Rooney, a Northern Irish native, trained at Rose Bruford and graduated in 2019. Her most recent credits include: House On Fire workshops (The National Theatre), and The Girl Who was Very Good At Lying, which gained her an OFFIES nomination for ‘Best Lead Performance in a Play’ and 5 star review in The Stage; ‘The stage often feels as though it is filled with multiple people… Rooney manages, incredibly, to create chemistry with herself.’ Performance work includes The Dead From The Sea (Feature Film); The 4th Country (Park Theatre); TGWWVGAL (Jermyn Street Theatre); I Never Want To Be This Age Again rehearsed reading (Bush Theatre); Dig For Love (Lung Theatre).
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Stephen Kennedy
Da
Stephen Kennedy
Da
Stephen Kennedy is an acclaimed Irish actor, well known for his role as Ian Craig in BBC Radio 4’s The Archers. His theatre credits see him work on the UK’s finest national stages, including London Tide, The Plough and the Stars, The Silver Tassie, Mother Courage, England People Very Nice, Dido, Queen of Carthage, Waves (also on tour) and Women of Troy (National Theatre). His screen work spans TV dramas such as Dark Heart, Lucky Man, Silent Witness, Casualty, Holby City and A Touch of Frost. His work in Film includes Nan Movie, Private Peaceful, The Agent, Notes on a Scandal, Braveheart and Nothing Personal.
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James Pedley-Holden
British Soldier
James Pedley-Holden
British Soldier
James Pedley-Holden is a 2025 graduate from The Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. Crocodile Fever will mark his professional stage debut.
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Meghan Tyler
Writer
Meghan Tyler
Writer
Meghan Tyler is an award-winning writer and actor from Newry, trained at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland. Writing credits: FLEG (Tron Theatre in association with The Citizens Theatre); FLEG, Bloodbank, The Persians (A Play A Pie A Pint); Rapunzel, The One With The Lockdown (National Theatre of Scotland); Hotline (Tron Theatre).
Awards include: 2019 – Channel 4 Playwrights Bursary, a New Playwrights Award with Playwrights’ Studio Scotland, 2019 – Stewart Parker Award for Crocodile Fever which was staged at The Lyric Theatre and Traverse Theatre later in the same year. Meghan was one of the writers on the New Playwrights Programme at The Lyric Theatre and part of the 2022 Convergence cohort at Short Circuit.
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Mehmet Ergen
Director
Mehmet Ergen
Director
Mehmet Ergen is the co-founder and current Artistic Director of the Arcola Theatre, London, founding and co curating Arcola’s annual Grimeborn Opera Festival as part of this role.
He was co-founder and the first Artistic Director of the Southwark Playhouse, Associate Producer at the Battersea Arts Centre, Opera Season Advisor and judge for BBC Radio drama. In Turkey & Germany Mehmet is Artistic Director of Istanbul City Theatre (1100 staff members, 350 Actors, 12 venues and 40 Plays a season).
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Aoife Beaumont
Assistant Director
Aoife Beaumont
Assistant Director
Aoife is an Irish London based theatre practitioner with a background in directing and facilitating community based projects, Aoife currently works with Almeida Theatre, The Old Vic as well as previously with youth based charity organisations such as White City Theatre Project, Youth Realities, CSSF and Young Ealing Foundation. Aoife is Participation Coordinator at Arcola Theatre where she creatively leads many of their programs.
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Richard Williamson
Lighting Designer
Richard Williamson
Lighting Designer
Previous work includes: The Olivier award winning Rotterdam (West End/Off Broadway/UK National Tour); Dogs of Europe (Belarus Free Theatre at the Barbican and international tour); Richard III, An Arab Tragedy (Swan Theatre Stratford/International tour); Sampled and Danse Élargie (Sadler’s Wells); Great Expectations (UK tour); Little Miss Sunshine (Arcola Theatre and UK Tour); Fiddler on the Roof and The Comedy about a Bank Robbery (Istanbul); Beowulf, Septimus Bean and His Amazing Machine, Jason and the Argonauts (Unicorn); What’s On Stage ‘Best Production’ Winner Thebes Land (also video), New Nigerians, Drones Baby Drones (also video), Shrapnel (also video), Mare Rider, Macbeth, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Country (Arcola Theatre); A Political History of Smack and Crack (Edinburgh Fringe and Soho Theatre); Oedipus at Colonus (Cambridge Arts Theatre); The Body (Barbican); The Dark Side of Love (Roundhouse); In My Name, Boris World King (Trafalgar Studios); Amphibians (Bridewell); Thrill Me (Tristan Bates/Charing Cross Theatre/UK and international tour); Twentieth Century Boy (New Wolsey Ispwich); Re:Home (also video), Brenda (The Yard); Play Size (Young Vic); The Al Hamlet Summit (Tokyo International Festival/International tour); Strangers In Between (Trafalgar Studios and Kings Head); Ballo, Tosco, Denial, Someone To Blame (Kings Head); Summer Begins (Southwark Playhouse). Richard trained at LAMDA, is a Trustee of the Kings Head Theatre, is a board member of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe Society, and develops industry leading applications zoomOSC and zoomISO.
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Merve Yörük
Set Designer
Merve Yörük
Set Designer
Merve Yörük began her artistic journey at Fine Arts High School, later studying Painting Teaching and Traditional Turkish Arts at university. She discovered her true passion in stage design and transferred to Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University’s Stage and Costume Design Department, graduating top of her class. She has primarily designed for theater productions, combining a research-driven approach with strong visual storytelling. Alongside her theater work, she has also worked in film and television, including three years at Turkey’s national broadcaster, TRT. In 2024, she moved to Vancouver to expand her artistic perspective and explore new methods in production design.
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Cathán McRoberts
Associate Designer
Cathán McRoberts
Associate Designer
Cathán’s most recent designs include a season at Play Pie and a Pint as a resident designer, Observe the Sons of Ulster at the Lyric Theatre and Brassneck Theatre Company’s pantomime Sleeping Beauty. They are absolutely delighted to be working with the Arcola on Crocodile Fever.
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Benjamin Grant
Sound Designer
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Gül Sağer
Costume Designer
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Katherine Watt
Costume Supervisor
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Joe Prentice
Production Manager
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Elizabeth Khabaza
Stage Manager (on book)
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Tilda Finlow
Assistant Stage Manager
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Charlie Flint
Photography
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Lidia Crisafulli
Rehearsal Photography
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Fri 17 Oct
7.30pm
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3pm
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Wed 29 Oct
7.30pm
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Thu 30 Oct
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Fri 31 Oct
7.30pm
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Sat 1 Nov
3pm
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Relaxed performance
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Sat 1 Nov
7.30pm
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Mon 3 Nov
7.30pm
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Tue 4 Nov
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7.30pm
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Thu 6 Nov
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3pm
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Sat 8 Nov
7.30pm
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7.30pm
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7.30pm
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Wed 12 Nov
7.30pm
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Captioned performance
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Thu 13 Nov
7.30pm
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Fri 14 Nov
7.30pm
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Sat 15 Nov
3pm
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Sat 15 Nov
7.30pm
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Mon 17 Nov
7.30pm
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7.30pm
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7.30pm
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7.30pm
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Sat 22 Nov
3pm
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Sat 22 Nov
7.30pm