A Flea in Her Ear: Stylish Farce Despite Bad Translation
Photo Wendy Wagner
Actor Dale MacEachern deserves a big bouquet for his contribution to Kanata Theatre’s new production of A Flea In Her Ear.
But, no, better make that two bouquets. MacEachern takes on dual roles in the Georges Feydeau farce, and excels in both. We first see him as the somewhat stolid but emotionally distraught Victor Chandebise, an affluent Parisian whose declining libido at home has led wife Raymonde to question his faithfulness. MacEachern etches out this characterization with shrewd psychological observation and comic efficiency, and then shows equal ease in creating the buffoonish Poche, drunken porter at the notorious Frisky Puss Hotel, a shambling oaf who happens to look exactly like Victor.
Mistaken identity is a favorite device in farce, and Feydeau, accomplished master of the form that he is, takes full advantage of it here. Inevitably Victor and Poche will be mistaken for each other which leads to further complications — not the least of which is that the hapless Victor is repeatedly being kicked in the derriere by the hotel proprietor (portrayed with gleeful dedication by Bernie Horton) who keeps mistaking him for his slob of an employee.
And what is Victor, a symbol of bourgeois respectability, doing in a place like the Frisky Puss? That’s the kind of complicated question that typically arises with a Feydeau farce — but we should note that however convoluted and confusing the narrative may seem at times, however bizarre the context, everything ends up working with a clockwork logic within the lunatic boundaries of this world.
The pieces of the comic jigsaw soon start coming together. We learn that Victor’s wife, Raymonde, is having a fling with Victor’s business partner, Romain; that her best friend, Lucienne, suggests that Victor’s fidelity be tested with an anonymous letter inviting him to a rendezvous at the hotel: that Lucienne’s insanely jealous husband, Carlos, is ready to storm onto the scene with all guns blazing.
The performers in these key roles — Melissa McCallum (Raymonde), Paul Behncke (Romain), Lorraine McInnis-Osborne (Lucienne) and Ron Miller (Don Carlos) — zigzag their way energetically through the increasingly tangled comic mayhem. Director Jim Holmes has given the play the sustained level of stylization it needs and sufficient pace to deny us the time to think too hard about the nonsensical nature of the material. Furthermore, for all the enjoyable on-stage absurdities, we are also getting a cutting portrait of a particular society, and Holmes recognizes that.
Other performers warmly deserving of applause are youthful Kenny Hayes, hilarious as a nephew with a speech impediment, and a droll Bruce Rayfuse as a randy physician.
The sets, designed by Susan Phillips and Jim Holmes, are admirable in concept, efficiently serving the play’s particular needs — farce always needs lots of doors through which frenzied characters constantly run — offering a particularly effective venue for the shenanigans which take place in the second act hotel sequence However, in the first act, the Chandebise drawing room looks incomplete (did they run out of paint?), and both sets at times look a little flimsy when it comes to joins and over-all stability.
The production’s decision to use American playwright David Ives’s coarse and idiomatically grating translation, rather than Rumpole creator John Mortimer’s stylish and period-conscious version, seems highly questionable.
Director: Jim Holmes
Set: Susan Phillips, Jim Holmes
Sound: Gerry Thompson
Lighting: Kenny Hayes
Costumes: Mary Holmes and Marilyn Valiquette
Cast:
Etienne……………………………..Troy Page
Antoinette………………………….Lynda De Guire
Camille……………………………..Kenny Hayes
Dr. Finache…………………………Bruce Rayfuse
Lucienne……………………………Lorraine McInnis-Osborne
Raymonde…………………………. Melissa McCallum
Victor/Poche………………………..Dale MacEachern
Don Carlos………………………….Ron Miller
Ferraillon……………………………Bernie Horton
Eugenie………………………………Megan Carly
Olympia……………………………..Melanie Anderson
Baptiste………………………………Ron Henry
Rugby………………………………..Martin Weeden