Canoe Jam Theatre 2/28/01: Tom McCamus
Flea has a few bugs: A Flea In Her Ear learns harsh facts of farce
February 28 2001
By JOHN COULBOURN
TORONTO -- In theatre, the simplest things are often the most difficult.
Doing nothing comes naturally to most of us, but most actors will tell you it takes real talent to appear to be doing nothing on stage.
Which brings us, inevitably, to farce.
On the surface of things, farce is what happens to all of us when we least expect it -- the pratfall when we're trying to impress the boss, the tie that gets caught in the zipper on an important date, the toilet paper caught in the pantyhose.
Farce is ordinary people caught up in extraordinary circumstances, and you'd think it would be the easiest thing in the world to bring that kind of thing to life on the stage.
But you'd be wrong, as countless casts, directors and ultimately audiences have discovered over the years.
The latest to stumble over the harsh facts of farce are the artists of Soulpepper, as they tackle Georges Feydeau's delightful A Flea In Her Ear, under the direction of Lazslo Marton. Co-presented with David and Ed Mirvish, Soulpepper's Flea opened last night on the stage of the Elgin Theatre.
Working with an often too-contemporary translation by John Mortimer, the 14-member cast tackles Feydeau's meringue with dedication and enthusiasm -- even a certain degree of finesse -- but sadly, it ends, at best, as a draw.
Things get off to a rocky start as the scene is set, but then farce rarely takes wing in the first act, which is most often devoted to the characters establishing their humanity.
Here, the lovely Madame Chandebise (played by Liisa Repo-Martell) posits to her best friend (Colombe Demers) that Monsieur Chandebise (Stephen Ouimette) is having an affair.
The two women cook up a scheme whereby they will forge an anonymous letter to the philandering husband, inviting him to an assignation at a local hotel and when he appears, his wronged wife will be there to confront him.
Unfortunately, much of their plotting is lost as Repo-Martell and several of her castmates fail to project vocally much beyond the first 10 rows.
And as their plot goes devilishly awry, snagging half of Paris in its ever-expanding coils, things don't get a whole lot better -- and we're not just talking volume.
Perhaps labouring under the misapprehension that Feydeau needs a bit of goosing for a modern audience, director Marton does his damndest to crank up the humour and, as so often happens, walks all over it instead -- quite literally, in this case. Just why Marton thinks that imposing elements of the Keystone Kops on French farce is likely to appeal to a modern audience is unclear, but unfortunately, the funny walks and elegant farce blend like oil and water.
Matamoros, Demers, Repo-Martell, Stephen Ouimette, Tom McCamus, Cliff Saunders, Jim Warren, Maria Vacratsis, Michael Hanrahan and the rest establish quickly that they can master Marton's demands. But ultimately, in the final act, when Tony Nardi demonstrates how true farce really works, one can't help but wish everyone had listened more to Feydeau's demands and less to Marton's.
© Canoe Jam
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