University of Virginia Library

STAGE

Players Make Feydeau's 'Flea' Fly

By STEVE WELLS

And the Virginia Players'
win-you-over beat goes on.

In a continuing effort to
turn critics into publicity
agents and lethargic audiences
into theatre buffs, the Players
opened their third production
of the season Monday night in
Minor Hall. With amazing
comic alacrity and
unmistakable self-assurance,
they made Georges Feydeau's
"A Flea in Her Ear" fly, float,
dance, bounce, and delight a
very appreciative and
responsive audience.

The play is a bedroom farce,
like all of Feydeau. It presents
us with a very improbable set
of circumstances and
characters all revolving around
the central premise of marital
infidelity. Indeed, the play is
outrageously sexy and
deliciously suggestive.

Good Business

But it can also be something
of a ludicrous bore if it isn't
staged with the necessary
pizazz. It's thin and contrived,
and unless the director is able
to keep the pace at a frenetic
level and supplement the script
with lots of good business of
his own, then it can all be just
deadly.

Steele, Lambert, Rittenhouse: Farcical Ingenuity

Were I to enumerate all of
the brilliant comic touches
which director Dave Bell has
come up with, there would be
little room for anything else on
this page. It is a virtuoso
display of farcical ingenuity,
the like of which has not been
seen at this university since
Paul Kuritz and Charles
Howard combined their talents
on "The Miser" two seasons
back.

Bell has staged "A Flea in
Her Ear" as a naughty cartoon,
treating sex as an exasperating
game (well, who can argue
that?). He has an uncanny
knack of pointing up sexual
references visually to
complement the spoken word.
He also has the ability to take a
straight line such as "To hell
with you!" and, by adorning it
with physical action, give it a
humorous dimension. If you
are wondering about the extent
of Bell's imaginativeness, even
the curtain calls are hilarious.

But Bell's real strength is in
his approach to the characters,
all of whom are gloriously
exaggerated. He creates comic
possibilities in his very
casting-such as by having tiny
Harriet Resio play opposite
gigantic Richard Waddell as the
married cook and butler. And
the performances which he has
evoked from his cast
are - without exception -
exceptional.

Who but Ed Steele could
fondle a throw pillow while
discussing his recent
impotency and give the scene a
sense of innocence? Who but
Ed Steele could play two roles
(yes, it's a mistaken identity
comedy), switch characters
abruptly, rush about the stage
like a puppy who's
being teased, be tripped,
beaten, shot at, and not
collapse in mid-stream? Steele
deserves two awards: one for
his actor's charisma, the other
for physical endurance.

Morally Right

Martha Gipson is quite
lovely and refined as Steele's
oh-so-proper wife who doesn't
feel it's morally right for her
to take a lover as long as her
husband has one. Ken Lambert,
plays her would-be companion,
in sin, and is very amusing in
his self-esteemed virility and
savoir fair-the archetype of
the great lovers of history.

As Miss Gipson's feminine
accomplice in the plot to trap
her husband, Carol Hurlburt
has a face that's made for
farce, and she does the most
with it. Randy Oglesby, as her
incensed Spanish husband, is a
study in hypertension - a fine,
funny "redskin" on the
warpath to protect what is
rightfully his. And in the
play's most unique
characterization, John Eure is
a joy as a misunderstood
fellow with a cleft palate
which causes him quite a bit of
trouble.

Of the rest, Mark Hattan as
a horny Prussian trying to get
his hands on a Fraulein. Kiki
Smith as the maid at the
ill-reputed hotel where
everyone ends up in the wild
second act, Tony Gilbert as a
grotesque employee of the
hotel. Charles Rittenhouse as
an obliging doctor, Tom
Bunch as the hotel proprietor,
and Sandi Steele as his wife
who gets trampled are all
wonderful.

Stellar Job

The physical production is
handsome, with LaVahn Hoh
having designed two very
functional and attractive sets,
and Lois Garren having
provided some exquisite and
appropriate costumes.

In short, it's a stellar job all
the way around. Mind you, the
play is trifling and of little
significance, but in the hands
of Bell and company, that is of
little consequence. It's great
fun - an evening which, like
the entire first half of the
Players' current season,
surpasses any logical
expectations we had.

—Ed.)