A Flea In Her Ear

A Flea in her Ear was originally written by the French playwright Georges Feydeau in 1907. A new translation of this farce was adapted in 2006 by David Ives.  It has a timeless feel and is still as outrageously funny as it was back in the day.  This production has been set in Paris in the 1920’s and lent itself perfectly to the fabulous 1920’s fashions and set décor.  As with all good farce timing is so essential, with fast paced dialogue causing absolute chaos and impossibly hilarious situations. Deben Players under the direction of Henry Tebbutt have certainly ticked all the boxes with this one much to the sheer enjoyment of their audiences as it kept them laughing throughout.

It had a large cast for a play with 23 characters, some of which were unspoken,  especially in Act 2 which took place in the Frisky Puss Hotel. They were seen tearing around, in one door and out the other and at one point in these chaotic scenes one young man is seen running behind some open doors backstage with no clothes on at all! Absolutely scandalous and hilarious!!  The action revolves around Rochelle (Rachel Keveren) who captured this melodramatic character perfectly.  She believed her husband, Chandebise, is having an affair and she confides in her friend Lucienne (Mags Humphrey). Together they plot a way to try and catch him out. These two talented ladies work wonderfully well together as things start going impossibly wrong and their scheme backfires. The husband in question is played by Andy Kimber, he is brilliant in the role and we soon discover that he has a look alike double, in Poche, the bellboy in the Hotel which adds much confusion to the ongoing scenes.  Andy confidently plays these comedy dual roles impressively. Lucienne’s husband, Homenides, is an impulsive Spanish character, flamboyantly played by Peter Mason.  The standout character of the performance, if indeed there is one, has to be Clement played by Sam Broadley. He is supposed to have a speech impediment and most of the while talks utter gibberish with just the odd familiar words and actions so we can at least try to understand what he is saying.  However, near the end of the performance he physically acts out the synopsis of an entire scene using only body language to demonstrate situations along with his comedic speech in a vain attempt to be understood. This done at breakneck speed and with amazing energy, leaving the audience almost as exhausted as he certainly was.  It left him sprawled out on a sofa for the next five minutes while he caught his breath and received spontaneously applaude from the audience   A quite amazing  feat!!

There was also great performances from Neill Pearce as Ferraillon and Samantha Harvey looking fabulous as Olympia, the owners of the Frisky Puss Hotel, along with Grant Filshill as Tournel and George Holmes as Dr Finache.  All the supporting characters kept up the comedy and energy throughout.

They had constructed an impressive box  style set  in the Art Nouveau design, with it’s many doors and a revolving bed. Between Acts 2 and 3 all the cast remained on stage as the set was changed from inside the Hotel to the home of Chandebise. As anyone who has worked backstage will know, changing a large  box type set is not as easy task and can take a long time but here we see a choreographed performance with the curtains open as they transformed the scene whilst several of the characters performed a comedy kickline ending with Samantha Harvey dancing the CanCan. A very effective idea for capturing the audience’s attention whilst maintaining the  fast pace of the show.  The lighting effects and sound complimented the set well. The 1920’s Flapper style costumes for the ladies especially, looked stunning, especially Lucienne’s costume which looked original and with her height she carried it off perfectly. All costumes were supplied from Deben’s own wardrobe department.

To sum up and most impressive of all was the whole cast maintained a quite frenetic pace throughout the entire production, without the slightest hint of hesitation. Congratulations to Henry and all the cast and team.  Very well done to you all.

Thank you for your hospitality.

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