David Ives' A FLEA IN HER EAR Begins 9/6 at A Noise Within

A Noise Within (ANW), the acclaimed classical repertory theatre company, presents the Southern California regional premiere of Georges Feydeau's classic French farce, A Flea in Her Ear - considered the greatest of French farces -- in a new version written by David Ives. Directed by Julia Rodriguez-Elliott, the show begins previews on September 6 and plays through November 22, 2015 (opens on September 12). Flea is the first production in A Noise Within's 2015-2016 BREAKING & ENTERING season, and is followed by the world premiere translation/adaptation of Jean Anouilh's Antigone by Robertson Dean (September 20 to November 20) and All My Sons by Arthur Miller, the Company's contribution to the global Miller Centennial Celebration(October 11-November 21).

Ives' version of A Flea in Her Ear 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 has since been performed in New York, Williamstown MA, and Washington, DC. Ives is best known for the Broadway hit and film of Venus in Furs, the book of Irving Berlin's White Christmas, and for the adaptations of 33 musicals for New York City Center's Encores! from 1995-2012.

A Flea in Her Ear: the Human Side of Farce

Widely regarded as one of the funniest farces ever written, A Flea in Her Ear teems with suspicious spouses, hotel liaisons, crossed wires and physical comedy galore.-and never fails to incite "comic chaos" (The Denver Post). "I have long wanted to do this play," explains director Julia Rodriguez-Elliott "because I've loved it from the very first time I saw it. Frankly, there are funny shows-and then there's A Flea in Her Ear. While it is a great source of naughty fun and every single element of farce is here in force, David Ives' recent translation is available to us which makes it truly performable for our audience."

Rodriguez-Elliott continues, "While Ives has taken into account modern humor, he also knows that in great comedy the laughs come out of the essential humanity of the characters, and this has to be played along with a split-second timing. All of this is helped greatly by a sense of trust among the cast - 80% of the cast come from our repertory actors -- that allows them to have a great safety with each other to perform the precise physical comedy of the piece. In fact," she continues, "this absolutely underscores the underlying premise of repertory theatre, and A Noise Within is proud to be among the few national companies that adhere to this time-honored but increasingly rare theatrical concept.

The Ives version has met with critical plaudits since its debut. Backstage wrote, "Ives' adaptation maintains the original's dazzling plot while communicating Feydeau's playful use of language to an American audience." Time Out Chicago called the play "[a] crisp, delightfully ridiculous translation, and Chicago Critic said it is "a hilarious evening of classic comedy." The Berkshire Review of the Arts said, "He (Ives) clearly loves A Flea in her Ear with all his heart, and, like other Feydeau enthusiasts, he admires the play for its perfect construction and sees Feydeau's wit as an existential force, which he interestingly compares to the theater of the absurd, Ionesco in particular."

A Flea in Her Ear tells the tale of how, after a brief bout of impotence, Victor Chandebise's wife Raymonde suspects her husband may have a wandering eye. She has a friend, Lucienne, pen a note to him luring him into an assignation with a mysterious lady at a nearby hotel to see if he will show up. Intrigued, Victor sends someone in his stead, leading to a series of mishaps: a Victor look-alike porter, and several miscommunications conjure strange (and multiple!) bedfellows at the naughty hotel. Everyone leaves slightly shopworn but in high spirits, having come to appreciate the value of a deep relationship over the glittering and new.

ANW's production is set in the dashing, dizzying world of 1950's Paris-a setting that very much informs the plays chic, sexy mood. Rodriguez-Elliott added, "The two female leads Raymonde and Lucienne, crazy scheming closest friends, are a bit reminiscent of Lucy and Ethel from I Love Lucy. Just as in that show, there are gender differences afoot-and they are somewhat ahead of their time in taking matters into their own hands. What breezes in as a minor misunderstanding blows into a comic whirlwind of gale force!"

The cast includes Geoff Elliott* as Victor Emmanuel Chandebise/Poche, Elyse Mirto* as Raymonde Chandebise, Rafael Goldstein* as Camille, Jill Hill* as Lucienne Homenides De Histangua, Luis Fernandez-Gil* as Don Carlos Homenides De Histangua, Jonathan Bray as Romain Tournel, Joshua Wolf Coleman as Dr. Finache, Alan Blumenfeld* as Etienne/Olympe, Jeremy Rabb* as Feraillon, Alison Elliott as Antoinette, Renna Nightingale as Eugénie, Mitchell Edmonds* as Baptiste, and E. K. Dagenfield as Rugby. * Denotes member of Actor's Equity.

2015-Breaking & Entering Season at A Noise Within

A Flea in Her Ear reflects the theme of the 2015-2016 season at its most literal. The characters are literally breaking bonds with their mates (and, to a degree, their own ideals of fidelity)and entering the not-very-subtly named Frisky Puss Hotel -and, ironically, it's in their schemes and falsity,that they discover the truth. Early in the play, Dr. Finache advises Victor "Everything you told me you should have told not me but your wife. She would have laughed, you would have laughed and the tension broken your tender nights would glide as if on oiled casters."

But human behavior being what it is, few would think to do that, (and, had the advice been taken, there would be no play). Rodriguez-Elliott notes, "The middle-aged Victor is facing impotence, and his wife Raymonde simultaneously thinks he is having an affair. Both are having emotional meltdowns and the resulting chaos comes out in their inability to be truly vulnerable with each other. Chaos ensues apace. In Arthur Miller's All My Sons the same kind of lies result in a tragic emotional meltdown. Antigone is something altogether different, with a heroine who will not break her single- purposed view of life, forged from generations of how to women are to conduct themselves, and how she can only entertain that vision."

A Flea in Her Ear, viewed as the Belle Epoque French playwright Georges Feydeau's greatest work, was written in 1907. Its title is a French phrase that loosely means "to provoke or have an amorous desire," though in modern times it has come to mean "putting a suspicion in someone's head."

Feydeau's plays (he wrote nearly sixty throughout his illustrious career) are all set in the Parisian demi-monde, and are known for their great wit and complex plots. Seen as light entertainment during his time, they are now viewed as great works that presage Surrealist and Dadaist theatre, and later the Theatre of the Absurd. Many have been continuously revived and are still performed today.

Single ticket prices for A Flea in Her Ear start at $44.00. Contact the A Noise Within box office in person, via phone at 626-356-3100, or online at www.ANoiseWithin.org for updated pricing and seat availability. A Noise Within is located on the corner of Foothill Boulevard and Sierra Madre Villa Avenue at 3352 East Foothill Blvd., Pasadena, CA 91107.

The engagement of A Flea in Her Ear includes a symposium with a lecture from a noted scholar on Wednesday, September 9 at 6:30 pm prior to the performance, and post-performance conversations with the artists on Friday, October 23 at 8:00 pm, Sunday, November 1 at 2:00 pm, and Friday, November 13 at 8:00 pm.

A Noise Within's 2015-16 Season also includes Jean Anouilh's Antigone in a new translation by Robertson Dean, All My Sons by Arthur Miller, our annual A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens, Romeo and Juliet by Shakespeare, You Never Can Tell by George Bernard Shaw, and Six Characters in Search of an Author by Luigi Pirandello.

The company's 2015-16 season reaches the public through a media sponsorship with KPCC.

Need more Los Angeles Theatre News in your life? Sign up for all the news on the Winter season, discounts & more...