University of Virginia Library

'Flea' Promises Comic Disasters

The Virginia Players' third
major production of the season
opens this Monday, December
6. It will be Georges Feydeau's
"A Flea in Her Ear".

"A Flea in Her Ear" is set in
turn-of-the-century Paris and
concerns the comic horrors
that beset men and women in
their determined pursuit of
romance and folly. Feydeau is
a master at presenting the
pomposity and passions of his
characters in an objective and
unsentimental fashion. He
deals with manners, not with
souls. His method is logical,
exact and ingeniously
contrived so that the realm of
the ludicrous builds through a
series of comic disasters.
Timing, reactions, and physical
action are the main business of
Feydeau's "A Flea in Her Ear."
The Virginia Players
production is aimed at creating
the atmosphere of absurd
hilarity which is the hallmark
of Feydeau's comedy.

Director

La Vahn Hoh has designed
the Parisian setting and Lois
Garren has costumed the
production. The director of "A
Flea in Her Ear" is graduate
drama student David Bell. Mr.
Bell received his B.A. from
Yankton College in South
Dakota where he directed
shows as diverse as "Earth
Gods", "Hay Fever", and "A
Midsummer Night's Dream."
He has directed in both dinner
theaters and summer stock
often doing his own
choreography. Mr. Bell plans to
go into the professional theater
as a director and eventually
establish his own acting
company.

Highly Stylistic

As a director he prefers the
classics and Shakespeare which,
he feels, allow him more
directorial freedom. Earlier this
year he directed his own
adaptation of, Aeschylus'
"Eumenides" for the Virginia
Players' workshop series to
great acclaim.

However, director Bell is
quite pleased to be doing "A
Flea in Her Ear" since, as he
says. "The department has
rarely done something like it; it
has action." He is aware of the
dangers of so highly stylistic a
dramatist as Feydeau; he says,
"In approaching Feydeau one
cannot go overboard on things.
Play it to the hilt, yes; but
overplaying is disaster!"

Of the forthcoming
production, Mr. Bell speaks
confidently of having struck
the essential performing
criteria for "A Flea in Her
Ear." "We have a marvelous
cast for Feydeau. It is going to
be extraordinarily funny," he
promises.

Cast Credits

The large cast includes Ed
Steele, Martha Gibson, Charles
Rittenhouse, Carol Hurlburt,
Tom Bunch, John Eure, Tony
Gilbert, Claudia Haynes, Kiki
Smith, Frances Carter, Randy
Oglesby, and Ken Lambert.

Performances of "A Flea in
Her Ear" begin at 8:30 p.m.
There will be a Saturday
matinee at 2:30 p.m. Tickets
are $2.00 for all performances,
with student tickets available
at 1.50 for the Monday,
Tuesday, and Wednesday
performances.

Tickets may be reserved by
calling the Minor Hall box
office at 924-3051 or by
stopping by Minor Hall today
or tomorrow between 2 and 5
p.m. or next Monday until the
show closes on December 12
between 2 and 8:30 p.m.