"A Flea In Her Ear" at the Irving Arts Center

A FLEA IN HER EAR
program

The Travelling Toe and 2 other theater enthusiasts journeyed to  Irving to enjoy the French farce "A Flea In Her Ear".  The play was written by Frenchman, Georges Feydeau.   Mr. Feydeau wrote over 60 plays during the era known as Belle Epoque - which means beautiful age - and was during the early 1900's prior to start of WWI.  

 Belle Epogue.

Georges Feydeau

The play centers around four couples:

Raymonde Chandebise and her husband Victor

Lucienne and her Latin husband Don Carolos

Antoinette the maid and her husband the butler, Etienne

Plus there are several other assorted characters in the mix, such as a nephew, a doctor, a hotel manager and his wife, the hotel maid and 3 other gentleman.

The story takes place at the turn of the century (the one in 1900) and chaos begins when Raymonde suspects her husband Victors of being unfaithful when a set of his suspenders are returned from a shady hotel know as the "Frisk Puss".   Needless to say the name of the hotel describes what goes on there.  So Raymonde, with the aid of her friend Lucienne, writes an anonymous love letter inviting Victor to the Frisky Puss for an rendezvous.  Victor thinking that in reality he was not the one to whom the letter was about, thought instead it should be go to his friend Tournel, who has a reputation as a rounder.   Victor then sends him off to the hotel in his place.  Next arriving is Don Carolos and Victor shows him the silly letter and Don Carolos immediately recognizes his wife's handwriting and becomes over wrought with jealousy. Victor's nephew, Camille, who has an unusual speech implement and no one can understand him, gets mixed up with the mayhem too.   

The second act all takes place at the Frisk Puss.  One after another of the cast arrives and then has to move from room to room trying to hide from one another.   One room has a revolving bed with a drunk ensconced in it and another has a strange man looking for love - or what passes for love in the Frisk Puss.  Add a bell man named Pouch, who is a dead ringer for Victor, and pandemonium ensues.

The third act returns to the Chandebise estate where all the confusion is cleared up about who is who and who is not having an affair and who is.  Victor and Raymonde recognize their mutual confusion over the suspenders and all is put right.

We three theater goers thought the staging was very ingenious as there was a need to have many doors opening and closing as part of the second act and it was accomplished with great fun and mirth.   The acting was very good and all the cast did a lovely job in their roles.   The costumes were spot on for the time period.  Another fun thing is that when each of the 2 acts pause for intermission, the actors remain in character talking to each other as the stage is set for the next act.   Just adds another fun dimension to this charming farce.  

The Dupree Theater is small but very nice.  Only negative comment is that there seems to be an issue with acoustics in the hall as the cast was not "miked" and it almost sounded like an echo at times.  But other than that, there were plenty of laughs to be had.   Go see it while it is still playing as it is worth the small price of the ticket.


Disclaimer:  The Travelling Toe is not a professional theatrical critic and any opinions expressed are for entertainment purposes only.