By Martin F. Kohn
Naomi Wallace's 1995 play "One Flea Spare" takes place in a London house under quarantine during the plague year of 1665, although it's quickly evident that disease is only the latest, and probably not the worst, source of widespread misery.
There are historical and political ailments, the result of years of war, civil and foreign; the societal suffering of the have-nots among highly visible haves, and the kind of personal affliction – sexual repression, a loveless marriage -that knows no single time or place.
Quarantine becomes a metaphor for the condition of the greater society, for people stuck together and facing great ills.
Quarantined in Shannon Ferrante's Planet Ant Theatre production are Marty Smith and Wendy Wagner as a very rich couple, William and Darcy Snelgrave; Jenny Tocco as a young servant, Morse, who takes refuge with them after the plague claims her employers; and Brian Thibault as a sailor, Bunce, who also seeks refuge.
A guard outside, Kabe, played by Jon Ager, makes sure they all remain locked in the house and delivers periodic reports about the number of deaths in various neighborhoods.
Under the intense pressures of confinement, things are likely to change. And they do, although there is little intensity in this generally underplayed staging. The only one who builds up a head of steam is Ager's guard who would appear to have the least to get worked up about.
The result is an unbalanced and tentative production, much of which may be blamed on the script. Dramatic moments are few, talk is plentiful, and Wallace's language is neither contemporary conversation nor that of its setting, the English Restoration. Not surprisingly, nobody seems comfortable with it.
REVIEW:
'One Flea Spare'
Planet Ant Theatre, 2357 Caniff St., Hamtramck. Friday-Saturday through Oct. 24, plus Sunday, Oct. 11. $15. 313-365-4948. http://www.planetant.com
