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A Flea in Her Ear (Ives)
A Flea in Her Ear (Ives)
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Author: Georges Feydeau Translated by: David Ives Publisher: Dramatists Play Service (cover may change) Format: Softcover # of Pages: 89 Pub. Date: 2006 ISBN-10: 0822221780 ISBN-13: 9780822221784 Cast Size: 5 female, 9 male (doubling)
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About
the Play:
A Flea in Her Ear is a full-length comedy by David Ives.
A new version of French playwright Georges Feydeau's classic
bedroom farce A Flea in Her Ear, which teems with suspicious
spouses, hotel liaisons, crossed wires and abundant physical comedy.
Set in turn of the last century in Paris, France, David Ives'
recent translation is full of naughty fun, and every single element
of farce is here in force.
A Flea in Her Ear presents a witty series of
misunderstandings, clandestine assignations and misplaced jealousies
between husbands, wives and lovers that are played out with precision
and breathtaking speed. Set in Paris in 1907, the bawdy bedroom
comedy is about a Parisian wife Raymonde who gets "a flea in her
ear" that her husband Victor is cheating on her. She has her
best friend, Lucienne, pen a note to him luring him into a meeting
with a mysterious lady at Paris' most notorious hotel, The Frisky
Puss, to see if he will show up. Thinking the letter was intended for
his best friend and Raymonde's wannabe paramour Tournel, Victor sends
Tournel off to make the rendezvous in his place. Meanwhile,
Lucienne's jealous Spanish husband finds the letter, recognizes his
wife's handwriting and takes his pistols to the Frisky Puss, hoping
to catch her in the act. Victor's nephew Camille tries to warn them
about the mix-up, but his inability to pronounce consonants prevents
everyone (except the audience) from understanding him. In Act Two,
everyone shows up the Frisky Puss where, it turns out, the drunken
(but lovable) bellboy Poche is the exact double of the proper Victor.
Meeting Poche and thinking she's been caught by her husband, Raymonde
keeps trying to escape from the hotel with Tournel, but a revolving
bed keeps flinging them from room to room, as more and more of the
involved parties pile into the hotel in a climax culminating in the
entrance of the jealous, gun-toting Spaniard. In Act Three the vortex
spins even faster as they all end up back at the Chandebise home
utterly confused about what actually happened and who was who at the
Frisky Puss. The drunken bellboy arrives, is mistaken once again for
Victor, and all the threads of the multiple mix-ups are sorted out as
Victor and Raymonde recognize their mutual confusions and are
reunited.
A Flea in Her Ear is the greatest of French farces, perhaps
the greatest farce ever written. David Ives' translation of
Feydeau's 1907 masterpiece was commissioned by the Chicago
Shakespeare Theater and was first performed there in 2006, where it
won that city's prestigious Jefferson Award for best adaptation. It's
still enormously popular, and has been a staple of community
theatres, regional repertory houses, and high schools since then.
Cast: 5 female, 9 male (doubling)
What people say:
"Ives' adaptation maintains
the original's dazzling plot while communicating Feydeau's playful
use of language to an American audience." — BackStage
"…[a] crisp, delightfully
ridiculous translation…." — Time Out Chicago
"…a hilarious evening of
classic comedy." — Chicago Critic
About the Playwright:
Georges Feydeau (1862-1921)
was a French playwright of the era known as the Belle Époque. He is
remembered for his many lively farces. He wrote over sixty plays and
was a forerunner of absurdist theatre.
David Ives is an American playwright, screenwriter, and
novelist who was born in Chicago and educated at Northwestern
University and Yale School of Drama. He is perhaps best known for his
evenings of comic one-act comedies, a reputation which resulted in
the The New York Times referring to him as the "maestro
of the short form". A former Guggenheim Fellow in playwriting,
he has also written dramatic plays, narrative stories, and
screenplays. He lives in New York City.
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