by Georges Feydeau
By Melbourne Theatre Company
At the Playhouse, Melbourne Arts Centre, until Feb 4, 1995
This review published in Jan 1995 in the Herald Sun (or maybe it was The Melbourne Times? I don’t have the details anymore.) KH
French playwright Georges Feydeau really knew how to slap together a rib-tickling farce riddled with sexual innuendo and more-obvious-uendo. His own life could have been a tragic reflection of one of his plays. In addition to his gambling and extravagance, his late nights at Maxim's, his divorce and an affair with a dancer, his syphilitic mental deterioration caused him to believe he was Napoleon!
In A Flea in her Ear, (1907), director Simon Phillips has gone for broke with the silliness of this door-slamming, slapstick romp with wrought iron doorways creating a virtual obstacle course on stage. Actors scamper about, peeping, sneaking, snitching and hiding behind doors and leaping in and out of beds which appear and disappear. Benny Hill had a transcontinental father in mad old Georges.
The cast, without exception, is superb. Richard Piper makes a feast of his double casting as both the staid Chandebise and his doppelganger, the dopey brothel porter. Robert Grubb is excellent as the philandering Tournel and Lewis Fiander plays the jealous Spaniard like Salvador Dali with an outrageous accent.
Marg Downey and Genevieve Picot as the plotting wives, find a joyful balance between grace and comedy while Peter O'Brien plays a sexy Camille with a very funny speech impediment. Much as I want to, I cannot mention everybody but Judith McGrath's cameo as the brothel madam was eccentric and wonderful.
The production gallops along, peppered with double takes and double identities, romantic deceptions, sexual games and tumbles of both kinds. There is no message, no political correctness, no tragedy in this farce. It is simply a beautifully directed, designed and acted summer romp.
KATE HERBERT 280 wd
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