S TU DY GUIDE

A
FLEA
IN
A Flea In Her Ear. PHOTO BY CRAIG SCHWARTZ.

HER

EAR

A NEW VERSION OF
GEORGES FEYDEAUS FARCE
BY DAVID IVES
SEPTEMBER 6 NOVEMBER 22, 2015

Californias Home for the Classics

Study Guides from A Noise Within

A rich resource for teachers of English,
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Dear Reader,
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 eneral information about the play
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DIRECTOR OF EDUCATION

The Tempest. PHOTO BY CRAIG SCHWARTZ.

A Flea In Her Ear

Study Guide Table of Contents
4

Character Map

Georges Feydeau: Biography

5
7
8
9

11
12
13
14
15
17
18
19

About the Play: Synopsis

Georges Feydeau: Timeline

David Ives: Biography

A Flea In Her Ear: Themes

A Flea In Her Ear: The Play

A Flea In Her Ear: Farce
Feydeau and Actors
La Belle poque

Essay Topics & Activities

Resource Guide

About: Theatre Arts & Key Terms

About: A Noise Within

A Flea In Her Ear. PHOTO BY CRAIG SCHWARTZ.

A NOISE WITHINS EDUCATION PROGRAMS MADE POSSIBLE IN PART BY:

The Ahmanson Foundation, Alliance for the Advancement of Arts & Education, The Sheri & Les Biller Family Foundation, Michael J. Connell
Foundation, Dwight Stuart Youth Foundation, The Green Foundation, Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors through the Los Angeles County
Arts Commission, National Endowment for the Arts: Shakespeare for a New Generation, Metropolitan Associates, The Kenneth T. & Eileen L. Norris
Foundation, Pasadena Arts & Culture Commission and the City of Pasadena Cultural Affairs Division, Pasadena Community Foundation, The Ralph
M. Parsons Foundation, The Ann Peppers Foundation, The Sally and Dick Roberts Coyote Foundation, The Michael & Irene Ross Endowment Fund
of the Jewish Community Foundation of Los Angeles, The Shubert Foundation, The Steinmetz Foundation

3 A Noise Within 2015/16 Repertory Season

A FLEA IN HER EAR: CHARACTER MAP

VICTOR EMMANUEL CHANDEBISE

A life insurance executive and faithful husband to

Raymonde, who misreads his decreased romantic
interest as infidelity. He looks uncannily like Poche.

RAYMONDE CHANDEBISE:
Victor Emmanuels wife. She
is considering having an affair
with Romain Tournel, but is
jealous when she suspects
that her husband is having
an affair of his own.

ROMAIN TOURNEL:

Victor Emmanuels best

friend and business
partner. He is also
Raymondes lover.

LUCIENNE HOMNIDS DE
HISTANGUA: The long-time
best friend of Raymonde and the
wife of Don Carlos. She suggests
that Raymonde trick her husband
to catch him red-handed.

CAMILLE: Victor

Emmanuels nephew,
whose cleft palate makes
him unable to pronounce
consonants and causes many
miscommunications.
Dr. Finache provides him with
a prosthetic palate to fix this
impediment, which Camille
promptly loses.

TIENNE: Victor

Emmanuels inquisitive
manservant and
Antoinettes husband.

ANTOINETTE: The maid in

the Chandebise house. She is

married to tienne and having
an affair with Camille.

DON CARLOS HOMNIDS

DE HISTANGUA: Victor Emmanuels client

DR. FINACHE: The medical consultant for the

FERRAILLON:

RUGBY: A British guest at the Frisky Puss Hotel

and the very jealous husband of Lucienne. He

speaks in broken French (English in translation).

The militaristic
manager of the
Frisky Puss Hotel.

OLYMPIA:

Ferraillons wife, a
former prostitute.

BAPTISTE: Ferraillons unsteady

and senile old uncle, who works

for him at the Frisky Puss Hotel.

life insurance company where Chandebise and

Tournel work. He is good friends with both Victor
Emmanuel and Camille as well as a frequent
guest of the red-light Frisky Puss Hotel.

who speaks little or no French. He is ready to

pounce on any woman who crosses his path,
including Lucienne and Antoinette.

POCHE: The drunken porter of the Frisky Puss Hotel, who is

frequently mistaken for Victor Emmanuel due to their striking

resemblance.

EUGNIE: A maid in the Frisky Puss Hotel.

4 A Noise Within 2015/16 Repertory Season

ABOUT THE PLAY: SYNOPSIS

IT IS 1950's PARIS.
The lovely Raymonde
Chandebise, after
years of wedded
bliss, begins to
doubt the fidelity of
her husband, Victor
Emmanuel, who suddenly has become sexually inactive.
Or, as Raymonde puts it, after having been a husband
and what a husband!suddenly stoppedlike that!
Between one day and the next. She does not realize,
however, that his behavior is due to a nervous condition,
and she begins to suspect that he has a mistress.
She confides her doubts to her old friend Lucienne, who
suggests a little trick to test Victor. They write him a letter,
in Luciennes handwriting, from a fictitious and anonymous
admirer, requesting a rendezvous at the Frisky Puss Hotel,
an establishment with a dubious reputation, but a large
and prominent clientele. It is Raymondes intention to
confront her husband there, and she and Lucienne leave
to do so.
When Victor Emmanuel receives the letter, however, he
has no interest in such an affair. He believes the invitation
is from the mysterious woman was meant for his best
friend Tournel, a handsome bachelorwho, unknown
to Victor Emmanuel, has his eye on Raymonde. Tournel,
hot-blooded and easily excited, quickly exits to make the
appointment.
Meanwhile, Camille, the young nephew of Victor Emmanuel,
is overjoyed to have his speech impediment corrected by a
new silver palate from Dr. Finache. In celebration, he and
the household cook, Antoinette, also hurry to the Frisky
Puss Hotel, followed by tienne, the jealous husband
of Antoinette. Dr. Finache, also looking for a bit of fun,
decides to go to the hotel in search of his own afternoon
rendezvous.
To complicate the matter further, Victor Emmanuel, with
the intention of sharing his amusement, shows the letter to

5 A Noise Within 2015/16 Repertory Season

Luciennes husband, Don Carlos Homnids de Histangua,

a passionate and violent Spaniard. Don Carlos recognizes
Luciennes handwriting and assumes that she is trying to
start an affair with Victor Emmanuel. He runs off to the
hotel vowing to kill her in revenge. Victor Emmanuel,
hoping to prevent the threatened murder, hurries off in
pursuit.
Feraillon, the proprietor of the Frisky Puss Hotel, runs
his business with a military precision, which, alas, is
about to be disrupted. Dr. Finache arrives looking for
fun. Raymonde arrives looking for Victor Emmanuel.
Tournel arrives looking for Raymonde. Camille arrives with
Antoinette, followed by tienne, who is looking for them
both. Don Carlos arrives looking for Lucienne; and Victor
Emmanuel, the most innocent of the entire group, arrives
looking to stop Don Carlos.
The presence of all the people at the hotel causes
further complications and misunderstandings. Don Carlos,
attempting to shoot his wife, violently shoots at anything
that moves. Victor Emmanuel sees Raymonde talking
with Tournel and believes she is unfaithful. Mistaken for
Poche, an alcoholic porter at the hotel, Victor Emmanuel is
believed to be insane. To escalate the action even further,
Camille loses his palate and Tournel tries incessantly to
seduce Raymonde.
The confusion persists even after all are reunited again
at Victor Emmanuels house. However, things begin to
clear up when Don Carlos discovers on Raymondes desk
a rough copy of the letter written by Lucienne, this one
in Raymondes handwriting. Next, the owner of the hotel
comes by to return an article left behind by a member of
the household and clears up the confusion between his
porter and Victor Emmanuel.
Finally, Raymonde tells Victor Emmanuel the cause of her
suspicions, and he assures her that he will put an end to
her doubtstonight.
SOURCE: http://www.bard.org/Education/insights/fleainsights.pdf

INTERVIEW WITH THE DIRECTOR

The cast of A Flea in Her Ear at The Old Vic Theatre. Photo: Alastair Muir

Q: W
 hat challenges did you face in directing A Flea in
Her Ear?

Q: W
 hat inspired you to place the design and aesthetic
of the play in the 1950s?

A: W
 hat is more challenging than doing classic French
farce? It is linguistically complicated and has to be
played with precision & breakneck speed (an athletic
event). For it to work actors must bring humanity to
the characters. Often in farce the character are less
important than the plot, but for it to be successful and
satisfying for an audience we have to be able to relate
to the individuals.

A: W
 hat drove the design was this wonderful new
translation by David Ives that breathes new life into
the piece. I loved the modernity of it and wanted to
make the play more accessible to a modern audience
while respecting the spirit of it. I wanted to get
it out of the drawing room into a much more chic
environmentout of the Middle class Belle Epoque
world and into that of the upper class trend setting
city dwellers. I hoped this would make it more
emotionally available to us. With the design team
we landed on the 1950s because it is still very much
a period with clearly defined gender roles and yet
it contained a certain navet that makes the Frisky
Pus Hotel work: The first issue of Playboy magazine
in 1953, the start of jet travel, Dior bringing Paris
back to the lead of high fashion in 1955, Miss Clairol
launching a campaign where it is okay for housewives
and mothers to color their hair in 1956. But the 1950s
are also a time when couples therapy is still in its
infancy and couples struggle with intimacy. Divorce
was uncommon and still a huge stigma. The sexual
revolution would not be realized for another decade.

Q: H
 ow did you make these characters important and
believable to the audience within such a demanding
plot?
A: F
 lea is brilliantly crafted. Feydeau takes a small,
insignificant misunderstanding and turns it aon its
head to create a deliciously chaotic situation. And
yet, the play is very human. Its all about relationships.
So much is at stake in the relationships in the play.
Communication or lack thereof is a central theme. If
Raymonde and Victor Emmanuel could only talk to
each other their troubles would disappear, but they
are too scared to do this. Raymonde and Lucienne are
a Lucy and Ethel of sorts. They set the play in motion
and are women who, like Lucy, will not be pushed
around and take matters into their own hands. All the
central characters in Flea are at their most vulnerable.
Issues of impotence and fidelity are difficult at any
time but especially during a period where these things
were not discussed.

6 A Noise Within 2015/16 Repertory Season

Q: H
 ow does the design mimic this tension between the
cultural norms and burgeoning personal freedoms
present in both the 1950s and the play?
A: In terms of architecture we created a chic symmetry
with the interiors of the Chandebise household.
They live in the center of Paris amongst well-heeled
professionals in a district surrounded by galleries,
antique dealers, bookstores and restaurants. And
when we get to the Act 2 location we find ourselves in
a seedy curved nightmare.

GEORGES FEYDEAU: BIOGRAPHY

GEORGES-LON-JULES-MARIE FEYDEAU was born in Paris in 1862,

the son of novelist Ernest-Aim Feydeau and Locadie Boguslawa
Zalewska. At the age of twenty, Feydeau began writing in earnest.
He first found success with Ladies Dressmaker in 1889 and married
Marianne Carolus-Duran, daughter of the famous portrait painter
Carolus-Duran, in the same year. The marriage, which would last
for 15 years, brought Feydeau wealth sustained him until he found
greater success.
Feydeau began investigating the great farces in 1890, studying the
works of Eugne Labiche, Henri Meilhac and Alfred Hennequin. This
study inspired him to write his acclaimed play Champignol in Spite
of Himself (1892). Feydeau subsequently made a name for himself
both in France and abroad, some of his plays opening overseas and in
other languages before they opened in France.
Feydeaus farces often involved Paris demi-monde. They are noted
for great wit and complex plots, featuring misunderstandings,
coincidences, and what one critic called jack-in-the-box
construction.
Georges Feydeau

Among his 60 plays, his most famous are A Flea in Her Ear (1907), Le
Systme Ribadier (1892), The Girl from Maxims (1899), and Hortense
says, I dont give a damn! (1916).
Though critics at the time dismissed Feydeaus works as light
entertainment, he is now recognized as one of the great French
playwrights of his era. His plays are seen today as precursors to
Surrealist and Dada theatre, and the Theatre of the Absurd. They have
been continuously revived and are still performed today.
Despite being a phenomenally successful playwright during his
lifetime, his propensity for high living, gambling, and the failure of his
marriage led to financial difficulties.
During the winter of 1918, Feydeau contracted syphilis and slowly
descended into madness to his death three years later at age 58. He
is buried in Cimetire de Montmartre in Paris.
EDITED FROM: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georges_Feydeau

7 A Noise Within 2015/16 Repertory Season

GEORGES FEYDEAU: TIMELINE

1862: Georges
Feydeau is born on
December 8 in the
Paris suburb of RueilMalmaison
1862: Victor Hugo
publishes Les Misrables
1870: France abolishes the
monarchy; installs the Third
Republic
1870: Franco-Prussian War
1871: The Paris Commune
1871: Start of the Belle poque
1873: Death of Napolon III
1873: glantine dAmboise
1876: Georges Bizets Carmen first performedto
unfavorable reviews
1876: Pierre-Auguste Renoir paints Bal du moulin de la
Galette
1877: The first modern department store, the Bon
March in Paris, has 1,100 employees and passes 72
million francs in annual sales
1878: The first electric street lights
in Paris illuminate the Avenue de
lOpra
1883: Amour et Piano
1884: France legalizes divorce
1885: Louis Pasteur develops
his vaccine against rabies
1885: mile Zola publishes
Germinale
1886: Tailleur pour dames
1886: First performance of Camille Saint-Sanss Organ
Symphony
1888: Chat en poche
1889: The Universal Exposition in Paris; opening of the
Eiffel Tower
1889: Marries Marianne Carolus-Duran; they have four
children
1890: Claude Debussy composes Claire de Lune
1892: Where Theres a Will [Le Systme Ribadier]
1894: Cat Among the Pigeons [ Unfil la patte]
1894: The Ribbon [Le Ruban]
1894: General Alfred Dreyfus is convicted of treason and
exiled to Devils Island

1896: Czar Nicholas II of Russia dedicates the

Alexander III bridge over the Seine in Paris
1897: First performances of Edmond Rostands Cyrano
de Bergerac
1897: Georges Mlis opens his movie studio in the Paris
suburb of Montreuil
1898: Sance de nuit
1898: Dormez, je le veux!
1898: Louis Renault builds his first car
1899: The Girl from Maxims [La Dame de chez Maxim]
1900: The Summer Olympic Games held in Paris
1900: First line of the Paris Mtro opens
1902: Mlis releases A Trip to the Moon
1904: La main passe
1905: French law separates the state from the church
1906: Dreyfus is declared innocent and restored to favor
1907: A Flea in Her Ear [Une puce loreille]
1908: Occupe-toi dAmlie
1908: Madames Late Mother [Feu la mre de Madame]
1909: Feydeau moves out of the family home
1910: The Baby Wont S [On purge bb]
1911: Mais nte promne donc pas toute nue!
1913: Opening of the Art Deco style Thtre des
Champs-lyses
1913: Proust publishes Swanns
Way, the first novel of
Remembrance of Things
Past
1914: Assassination of
Archduke Ferdinand
begins World War I
and ends the Belle
poque
1916: Feydeau
is divorced from
Marianne CarolusDuran
1918: World War I ends
1919: Completion and
consecration of the Basilica of
Sacr-Cur in Montmartre
1919: Feydeau is a witness, along with Sarah Bernhardt
at the wedding of Yvonne Printemps and Sacha Guitry on
April 10

1894: The Free Exchange Hotel [LHtel du libre change]

1920: Feydeau enters a sanatorium with psychological

ailments

1896: Sauce for the Goose [Le Dindon]

1921: Feydeau dies on June 5 in Rueil-Malmaison

8 A Noise Within 2015/16 Repertory Season

DAVID IVES: BIOGRAPHY

CELEBRATED for his immensely playful comedies, New

York playwright David Ives situates his aesthetic on
the knifes edge between absurd slapstick and astute
substance. His work has received multiple honors,
including the MacArthur Award for Outstanding
New Play, the Hull-Warriner Award, a Prince Prize
for Commissioning New Work, and the 2012 Tony
nomination for Best Play for Venus in Fur, which, after its
acclaimed Broadway run, was made into a film by Roman
Polanski in 2013.
The playwright was first recognized for his one-acts.
All in the Timing comprises six short plays on sundry
subjects: three chimpanzees attempting to write Hamlet,
the death of Leon Trotsky as he attempts to make
sense of the mountain climbers axe in his head, and the
mundane act of composer Philip Glass purchasing a loaf
of bread. All in the Timing won the Outer Critics Circle
Playwriting Award, ran for two years off Broadway, and
in the 1995-96 American theater season was (apart from
Shakespeare) the most performed play in the country.
His Lives of the Saints consisting of seven short plays
began in previews Off-Broadway in February 2015,
directed by John Rando.

David Ives. BBB.

Ives often translates and/or adapts older works,

describing his process as translaptationan attempt
to look for the play underneath the words and to draw
parallels between a plays historical context and today.
Commissioned by CST and produced here in 2006, Ivess
first translaptation was A Flea in Her Ear by Georges
Feydeau, the nineteenth-century father of French
farce, followed by School for Lies from Molires The
Misanthrope in 2012. Now The Heir Apparent, a 2014
Outer Critics Circle Award and 2012 MacArthur Award
nominee, evolved from Regnards Le Legetaire Universel
which Ives worked in Washington and New York with
director John Rando. Of his sources Ives says, Voltaire
said, Whoever doesnt enjoy Regnard doesnt deserve
to admire Molire. Now theres a puff line to put on a
theatre marquee.
EDITED FROM: https://www.chicagoshakes.com/plays_and_events/
heir/know_david_ives#sthash.Jy8dmf7q.dpuf

9 A Noise Within 2015/16 Repertory Season

A Flea In Her Ear: Themes

APPEARANCES & REALITY
Much farce is built on and around mistaken identity, a
technique as old as literature itself. In A Flea in Her Ear,
the characters could have avoided most of the confusion
if they had stopped to realized they were confusing
Chandebise and Poche. The comedy comes from both
that confusion and the plays breakneck speed that
doesnt give them time to stop and think.
The characters are so convinced by first appearances
that they do not hear what the others say, how they say
it, nor how they behave. At the Frisky Puss Hotel only
appearances counta condition underscored by the
presence of Rugby, seemingly both unaware and uncaring
that he cannot communicate with anybody but who
pounces on any passing girl or woman. (Ironically, the
translation nearly always used in Britain changes Rugby to
Herr Schwarz, a German.)
The play can be seen as a comment on judging people
by appearance, and especially by what they wear. Using
apparel to show rank has a long history. Ancient Roman
law reserved purple clothing for the emperor. Saffron and
indigo marked the upper class because the dyes were so
expensive. In Early Modern England, documents signed
by Queen ElizabethI limit by law certain ruff collars,
certain fabrics, and feathers to the aristocracy.
Some like to think that in our more egalitarian days we
have outgrown judging people on their appearance. Their
evidence seems scant.

COMMUNICATION
Communication is thwarted throughout the play.
Especially in the second and third acts, characters talk
with one person, thinking theyre addressing someone
else.
Camille, who tries to issue warnings (and thus clear
up several misunderstandings) cannot be understood
due to a speech impediment that leaves him unable to
pronounce consonants. His silver palate, with its symbolic
connotations, makes his speech understandable; but
when it finally turns up, he promptly loses it, only to have
it restored in the plays final scene.
Communication within the couples poses problems, even
some that other characters see. When he learns about
the knock knock knock, Dr. Finache advises Chandebise
1 0 A Noise Within 2015/16 Repertory Season

A Flea In Her Ear. PHOTO BY CRAIG SCHWARTZ.

Everything you told me you should have told not me

but your wife. She would have laughed, you would have
laughed, and with the tension broken you tender nights
would glide as if on oiled casters.
And Rugby, the Englishman pops up and down like a
jack-in-the-box that nobody understands.

TIMING
Much of the delight in watching A Flea in Her Ear rests
on its timing. Characters enter and exit with a frequency
and rapidity rarely seen outside of Warner Bros. cartoons.
Indeed Feydeau worked out the staging much as
engineers build bridges. Each door slam, button push,
bed rotation, slap, punch, and kiss must come within one
second of its planned time or another will override it, and
the audience will be lost. Characters must just miss each
other repeatedly, and so closely that they might have
should havemet.
The play is about timing in real life as wellabout the
need to consider the right time to do things, how much
time to take to do them, and the consequences of bad
timing.

HUMAN FOIBLES
French philosopher Henri Bergson proposed and
defended the idea that the purpose of laughter is to
correct. Feydeau crowds A Flea in Her Ear with human
foibles needing correction. Characters are selfish, selfcentered, foolish, blind, arrogant, and deceitful. In many
contemporary novels like Hugos Les Misrables, and
Zolas Germinal, the characters are fighting against
deprivation and injustice imposed from outside, by
nature or society, more than against themselves. But in
Feydeaus farce the characters, in Pogos words, have
met the enemy and he is us. They all risk being undone
not by others but by their own foibles and follies.

A FLEA IN HER EAR: THEMES

The cast of A Flea in Her Ear at The Old Vic Theatre. Photo: Alastair Muir

WOMEN AND MARRIAGE

A Flea in Her Ear was first performed in 1907,
during the period called la Belle poque.
Ironically, this was far from The Beautiful Era in
many waysespecially for women. But in France,
changing attitudes were in the wind. Happily,
in the year of the plays debut, women won the
legal right to spend money they had earned;
before it had belonged legally to their husbands.
France had begun permitting women to file for
divorce 23 years earlier, in 1884. But women
would not be eligible for another twelve years for
a high school diplomathe baccalauratand
would win the right to vote only in 1944.
If we move the setting to the middle of the 20th
century, we see women, (in France and in the
U.S.), still expected to conform to a role where
they are subservient to their husbands. Countless
examples from television situation comedies
show that women were permitted to outwit

1 1 A Noise Within 2015/16 Repertory Season

their husbands, but only by using childish tricks.

The divorce was still suspect, and the very
few women in professions were often seen as
impertinent.
Feydeaus women do not all fit the conformist
mold. Raymonde hasnt been on stage for a
minute before telling Lucienne that she had
gone so far as to think I should take a lover,
declaring that she and Tournel, her husbands
best friend, have been within an inch of it. And
at the Frisky Puss, she celebrates learning of her
husbands innocence by redoubling her kissing
with Tournel. Lucienne, on the surface at least,
is much more sensible and closer to what was
expected. But Antoinette is aggressive in her
affair with her bosss nephew. Olympia seems
the only happily married woman, but even there
some darkness seems to lurk. If the relationship
is abusive, does she find it unpleasant? And
Feydeaus husbands are hardly the wise ruler
type on whom a wife could depend for much.

A Flea In Her Ear: The Play

THE THEATER in France found itself changing after the
Industrial Revolutionin large part because its audience
was changing too. By the mid-19th century there existed
a new solid middle class with the time and means to go
to the theater. But this audience begins to want a type of
drama to which it can relate more easily.
These people seek not just wit, but also ideas. Unlike the
aristocratic audience, this one wont settle for wit alone
but wants problems and ideaswants something not just
admirable but also in some way useful.
France suffered the triple blow of the collapse of the
Second Empire, the defeat in the Franco-Prussian War,
and the violence of the Paris Communeall between July
19, 1870 and May 28, 1871. Response from the theater
was to offer the shaken and apprehensive middle class
audience glory and heroism from the past, and written
in the Alexandrinethe twelve-syllable line of the great
17th-century classics dramatists Corneille, Racine, and
Molire. Of those emotional dramas from the end of the
19th century, none has rivaled Edmond Rostands Cyrano
de Bergerac.
The new bourgeoisie brought a growing importance
to individualism. At the same time, public morality was
softening. In the new plays, the couple remains the
fundamental theme. But instead of the couples balance
and integration into society, the plays begin to treat the
emotional, even sexual, contentment of each individual.
This is the stage onto which Feydeau steps with his major
works. He gets close to (or some say more honest with)
his audience by abandoning the Alexandrine verse form.
The playwright creates husband and wives but spends
little energy on couples. And while he restores much of
the witty dialogue characteristic of his own upper class,
he offers the middle class audience the darker side of life
and romancethe problems and ideas they wanted.
Strangely, the mid-20th century saw some French
critics declaring that Feydeaus farces had originally
been produced only for laughs but that since they
were bringing back to life an era long gone, they were
taking on the aura of something enjoyably archaic. That
comment came 50 years after the first performance of
A Flea in Her Ear. Now, something over 50 years after
that, we have a production set back in or around the
1950s and see that, in fact, the situations in the play are

1 2 A Noise Within 2015/16 Repertory Season

timeless.
The comedic plot
of A Flea in Her
Ear is founded
essentially on
the mistaken
identity that
arises because
of the extreme
resemblance between Victor
Emmanuel Chandebise and Poche. The spectators,
aware that its two people who have nothing to do with
each other, always understand more than the characters
on stage do. The audience knows why its useless for
Raymonde, Tournel, and Camille to try to justify their
actions to Poche, and it understands that Chandebise is
not the hotel bell boy. The added comic technique of the
turning bed that surprises the characters on stage, leads
to laughs from the audience that understands the secret.
An enormous part of Feydeaus genius lies in the
masterful intricacy of his staging. A Flea in Her Ear has
a staggering 274 entrances and exits, most of which
have to be made with split-second timing. Much of the
laughter depends on that timing. One critic has said that
the director has to find a visual and physical equivalent
for a kind of mania, mathematical in its precision: or total
chaos in the grip of an iron vice.
Feydeau manages the dialogue as brilliantly as he does
the intricate stage mechanics of the playthe twists of
language, the puns, the bawdiness that never becomes
vulgar. The comic technique of absurdity that Feydeau
shares with his London contemporary Oscar Wilde, rises
repeatedly (She poisoned herself with a bowl of clams.
But if youre going to kill yourself, you dont do it with
clams. The chances are too random.). And David Ives in
this new version multiplies the comedy in the language,
adding comic repetition (a woman was devouring
me with her eyes. Did you notice a woman devouring
me with her eyes?) and a sort of metatheatrical humor
(With any talent youll be doing Feydeau at the Comdie
Franaise ).
With all that word play, breakneck exchanges of dialogue,
and violent physical action, we can understand how this
play once called archaic has become one of the most
performed farces in theater history.

A Flea In Her Ear: Farce

AS A FORM OF DRAMA, farce traces its roots at least
as far back as Menander, who was writing farces like
Dyskolos (The Grouch) in 317 bce. Farce has slid
out of style but has always come back and flourishes
today especially in television situation comedies and in
animated cartoons. It reached its summit, though in the
19th and early 20th century, particularly in France, and
specifically in the work of Georges Feydeau.
A farce will include many of these elements:
h
 ighly improbable situations, like Groucho
Marxs being selected to rule a country in Duck
Soup, and an unlikely plot, like W. C. Fieldss
move to California in Its a Gift, with the type of
exaggeratedly heightened situations in many of
Charlie Chaplins early films.
c ases of mistaken identity, especially with
characters who resemble each other, like the
two sets of twins in Shakespeares The Comedy
of Errors, or who are disguised, as in Brandon
Thomass Charleys Aunt or Billy Wilders Some
Like It Hot.
s tories rich with deception that often backfires, as
in TV series like I Love Lucy or Threes Company,
and with characters deflecting blame, as in the
BBC series Fawlty Towers.
a
 ction, seemingly spontaneous, that builds to
a crescendo, often with chases that become
circular, as the Blake Edwardss The Pink Panther.
r espectable characters from the upper or uppermiddle class to accentuate the indignities that
occur in Molires Tartuffe or Oscar Wildes The
Importance of Being Earnest.
s tereotyped characters, like the theater people of
Michael Frayns Noises Off!
p
 hysical exaggeration or stylized behavior, as in
much work by Monty Pythons Flying Circus or,
more subtly, in the films of Buster Keaton.
v iolent horseplay, as in the movies of the Three
Stooges or TVs The Black Adder.
w
 ord play; sexual innuendo, and double
entendres of the kind in Jean Poirets play La
Cage aux Folles.
1 3 A Noise Within 2015/16 Repertory Season

A Flea In Her Ear. PHOTO BY CRAIG SCHWARTZ.

c haracters whose lives are secondary to the plot,

who often have no backstory but exist only for
the sake of the action like both the family and the
bank employees in The Beverly Hillbillies or the
rude mechanicals Shakespeares A Midsummer
Nights Dream.
Feydeau follows a careful formula in his farces, identified
by his biographer Leonard Pranco as a plot that
is complicated by a number of subplots, shaken by
surprises, coups de theatre, sudden reversals, threats of
the unexpected (but well prepared and therefore at least
subconsciously expected) and a mad romp in the second
act when chaos reaches its summit, and then drawn to a
clear and clever denouement.
Although farce, with its string of coincidences,
implausibility, and stage gimmicks, is often identified
as a low form of comedy, it often raises unanswerable
questions about some of peoples and societys most
unsettling and embarrassing dilemmas. A Flea in Her Ear
counts among its most important uncertainties those
dealing with madness and insanity, infidelity and adultery,
prostitution, impotence, alcoholism, lying and deception,
and sadomasochism.
Feydeau once wrote that, I thought that all of us, in our
life, find ourselves in farcical situations without, for that,
losing our interesting personality. That was all I needed.
I started to search for my characters in real life, living,
and keeping their own personality. I tried, after a comical
exposition, to throw them into ludicrous situations.
Farces greatest contribution may be that it gives us that
chance to look at the ludicrous side of life in a situation
where characters dont end up dead or hurtor certainly
no worse thathey were before the drama began. It does
not pretend to offer solutions to our great problems, but
it leaves each of us with the feeling that, as Chandebise
says in his last line, I can try, anyway.

Feydeau and Actors

FOR FEYDEAU, actors should be restrained, as if they
were in a yoke, so that it would be nearly impossible for
them to spoil an effect. All the same, they are the ones
who can bring the essentiallifeto the characters
who inhabit the costumes the actors slip on. Feydeau
succeeded in prescribing everything, in foreseeing
everything, in putting the finishing touches on the
engine of his machinethrough arduous work, through
attention to every moment, through skill, through a rigor
and a perfectionism that was diabolicalalmost insane,
and exhausting besides. And he had no patience with
actors who could not dedicate themselves completely
to bringing their characters to life, both physically and
psychologically, with a concentration as keen as his own.
From French actor, playwright, and humorist Flix
Galipaux, we can get the flavor of Feydeaus relationship
with actors.
An actor working with Feydeau for the first time was
completely thrown off by the remote coolness of
Feydeau, who, always dissatisfied with the acting, was
rather stingy with any encouraging word.
Feydeau was capable of amiable thoughtfulness toward
actors of whom he thought highly, but he was never
taken in by second-rate acting, and he would ride
roughshod over those he found inadequate and unworthy
of the craft of our art. For these, when things werent
going too badly, he had one compliment: The public
finds you good. And we know what kind of critics they
are.
A young and attractive singer was auditioning but could
not be heard well. What do you think? Feydeau was
asked. She is one of the rare women I would trust with a
secret.
A fairly unknown Romanian actress rushed at Feydeau,
rustling and intrusive: Oh, master! I am so happy to
meet you. I have been in your plays everywhere in
Romania: Bucharest, Jassy, Czernovitz, Caracalu, Caralasi,
Braila, everywhere everywhere. And he, with an icy
smile, Well, I wont hold that against you, Maam.

1 4 A Noise Within 2015/16 Repertory Season

A Flea In Her Ear. PHOTO BY CRAIG SCHWARTZ.

A comedian that he didnt much like asked Feydeau, Did

you come see me in the show at the Olympia? Yes, of
course and I apologize.
A young leading man, not overflowing with intelligence,
interrupted his directors work and cried out, I have an
idea! How lonely it must be, murmured Feydeau.
During a rehearsal Feydeau was clearly exasperated.
An unwise actor leaned over the ramp, Whats wrong?
Its not going well? Oh yes, its fine, going very well,
Feydeau replied, except that each of you is playing
opposite an imbecile.
Feydeau never thought that his work as a director ended
on opening night, and he would come back several times
to be sure nothing was drifting. At every resumption,
every role change, he was there. He quickly became the
terror of actors who, seeing him on rehearsal days arrive
at 5fresh, rested, rosywhile they were center stage,
sweating, exhausted by a rehearsal that had started at1.
They shuddered at the thought of hearing him say OK,
boys and girls, were going to do some good work; today
well start with sceneone.

La Belle poque
THE PERIOD FROM 18901914 is
now known as La Belle poque. It was
a time of relative peace and stability
in Western Europe.
Technological advances altered
everyday life in France and
throughout much of Europe. Railways
had connected most major cities.
Transport changed forever when
Peugeot rolled its first cars in 1891,
and the Paris Mtro opened in
1910. Advanced developments in
electricity brought electric lighting
and heating into homes to compete
with gas. Communication took on
new dimensions with the invention of
pneumatic tubes, telephones, telegrams and typewriters.
The dirigible became a part of air transport, and France
initiated the worlds first air force.
Paris became Europes art capital. Art Nouveau, with its
curved forms, stands out as the movement most typical
of the period and is still the style most associated with
Paris, both in new forms like the poster and traditional
areas like architecture. The door at 29 avenue Rapp
stands as a monument to the style. (An apartment in the
building was recently for salefor well over $3 million.)
The highlight of the entrance to the Worlds Fair of
1889, Gustave Eiffels new tower, brought protest from
some of the countrys leading artists and architects,
who denounced it as a useless and monstrous and
worried that it would dominate Paris like a gigantic
black smokestackfor twenty years. In 1894 the
Galleries Lafayette opened and may still be the worlds
most dramatic department store. Style and fashion took
on a new, important role, and Parisian couturiers began
introducing new lines each season.
Artists associated with Paris during the period include
painters Claude Monet, Paul Gauguin, Henri Matisse,
Henri Rousseau, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, the sculptor
August Rodin, and the about to be discovered Picasso.
In music, the operetta reached its height in works by
Johann Strauss III and Franz Lehr. Many Belle poque
composers working in Paris are still widely performed
today: Igor Stravinsky, Erik Satie, Claude Debussy, Jules
Massenet, Gabriel Faur, and Camille Saint-Sans and
his pupil, Maurice Ravel. Literature was rich in naturalist
and realist works, led by mile Zolas Germinal and Nana,
1 5 A Noise Within 2015/16 Repertory Season

Guy de Maupassants short stories, Marcel Prousts epic

Remembrance of Things Past, and the then-shocking
work of Colette. The theater took on a new look with
dramas of everyday life and new explorations of sexuality.
The most popular theater was dominated by the great
farces, most notably those of Georges Feydeau. In the
newest art form, Georges Mlis creates the first movie
studio in France and makes over 600 films, now seen as
groundbreaking works, the first to use such techniques
as multiple exposure and superimposition, fades and
dissolving, enlarging and reducing characters, freeze
frame and stop-action photography.
New restaurants, nightclubs, cabarets, and cafs grew up
all over Paris, drawing Le Tout-Paris, the fashionable
and affluent elite. New brasseries, less formal than
restaurants, reflected the art nouveau style with their
walls of mirror framed in curved wood and wrought iron.
Writers, musicians, and artists gathered at famous spots
including brasseries like Bofinger near the Bastille and the
Montmartre nightclubs including the prison-themed Caf
du Bagne, and most notably, Le Chat Noir and the Moulin
Rouge. The most celebrated, though, is Maxims, still in
its original location off the Place de la Concorde and the
restaurant where Feydeau had a standing reservation for
his table. The best cinematic recreation of the Belle
poque is almost certainly the scene set at Maxims in
Vincente Minnellis 1958 movie, Gigi. Filming involved
repeated reshooting because the walls are mostly mirror
and reflected the crew and equipment. The scene was
finally reshot in a re-created Maxims on the MGM lot. In
another link to Feydeau, the author of the novella Gigi,
on which the film was very loosely based, was best-selling
writer Colette, a friend of his sister, Diane-Valentine.

A FLEA IN HER EAR: ESSAY TOPICS & ACTIVITIES

ESSAY QUESTIONS
1. T
 he play uses the comedic device of mistaken
identity. Can you think of any other plays, movies,
etc. that rely on this comedic device? Is it always
funny? Why or why not?
2. H
 ow does Feydeau use the theme of deception?
What does this say about human nature?
3. D
 iscuss how the play contrasts the bourgeois
world of the Chandebise residence and the world
of the Hotel Minet Galant. How does this create a
divide between the characters? How is this theme
relevant today?
4. T
 ake note of the pace of the play; how does this
add to comedy? What does it take as an actor to
keep the story fast paced and engaging? What
role does ensemble play in creating a successful
comedy?

IN CLASS ACTIVITIES
STATUS QUO:
Engage the student actors in a conversation
regarding status. What does this term mean in
life (at school, at home or in the wider community)?
What does it mean on stage (between characters
or between actors and the audience)?Discuss how
status can affect the body language, the voice,
dialogue and the overall truthful portrayal of a
character.
S
 plit the class in half. One set of student actors
becomes the audience and the other half sit in
chairs that are set up in a line SL to SR across the
stage or teaching area. The facilitator places a
playing card on the forehead of each participant
(with a small piece of double sided tape) without
the participant seeing what card it is.
Instruct the actors that an ace is the highest
status in the room and two is the lowest. When
the facilitator claps his/her hands, the actors are
to mill around the room as if they are at a social
engagement, meeting new people for the first
time. They are to treat the other people at the
party according to the status (card ranking) on
their forehead. They are to quickly adapt their
character by responding to the cues given to
them by their fellow actors.
T
 he first round is silent and entirely delivered
through body language and facial expression.
Freeze.
C
 lap again and the second round introduces
improvised dialogue. Freeze again.

A Flea In Her Ear. PHOTO BY CRAIG SCHWARTZ.

A Noise Within has developed these activities

according to The Common Core State Standards for
Language, Reading, Speaking, Listening and Writing at
the 9th grade level and the 21st Century Learning and
Thinking Skills.
1 6 A Noise Within 2015/16 Repertory Season

T
 he actors sit back down in their seats and are
asked to sit SL to SR from low to high status,
having to guess what external status they have
been given. One at a time, actors remove their
cards and discuss if their predictions were correct,
how they guessed their status, how they were
treated and how it felt.
L
 arge class discussion and the groups switch. The
entire activity is repeated for the new group.
A
 ssessment is in the form of reflection and in
class discussion.

A FLEA IN HER EAR: ESSAY TOPICS & ACTIVITIES

TIMING AND MOVEMENT:

OBSERVATION:

When the timing is precise and sharp, a comedic

production leaves the audience weak with laughter.
A Flea in Her Ear relies on the precision of comedic
timing and the strong characterization and
movement of characters, and this activity will help
students learn how to create the perfect timing of a
scene through timing and movement.

Feydeau spent hours taking notes on people he

observed at Maxims de Paris in order to make his
characters more realistic. Find a place to sit and
watch people (e.g. at school, on a bus, at home, etc.)

Have the students start by walking in the space.

Change the size of the movement. A movement

can be made wider or narrower, higher or lower,
deeper or shallower. One can make the walk
wider or narrower by widening or narrowing the
stance and swinging the arms further away or
closer to the body.

Change the time of the movement. A movement

can be made slower or faster.

Change the weight of the movement (An angry

schoolteacher may walk heavily; a ballet dancer
may move lightly.)

Change the direction of the movement. A

movement can be direct--moving to a specific
point without veering off the path--or indirect-wandering aimlessly.

Change the tension of the movement. The

muscles can be loose and relaxed or tense and
constricted.

Change the focus of the movement. Focus is

basically the direction of the gaze, with usually a
corresponding curve of the body. (Think of the
difference between a downcast person walking
about staring at the floor and a proud, happy
person striding about with his chin up.)

SOURCE: childdrama.com

Take notes on the people you see and write it in

a journal. What is interesting about them? What
makes them unique?

Ask the students to pick one of the characters

that they observed and present it to the class
through body movements, voice, and actions. Have
the students guess what this character is like.

LIFEBOAT SURVIVOR
A group of ten people floats through the ocean on
a lifeboat that is barely large enough to save them.
In fact, it cannot hold one more person. Suddenly, a
head bobs up though the waves: another shipwreck
survivor begging for their help. Another life can only
be saved if one person leaves the lifeboat.
DRAW THESE SUGGESTED
CHARACTERS OUT OF A HAT:
Doctor, Mother, Father, Small Child, Athlete, Artist,
Activist, Survival Expert, Lawyer, Teacher, Bus Driver,
Religious Leader, Elderly Person, Boat Captain,
Engineer, Biologist, [Feel free to make up more of
your own!]

Determine which person floats in the water

while the other ten stay safely on the raft.

Take turns defending your existence; each

character makes the case for or against saving
his/her own life.

QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION:

1. A
 fter each character makes their case,
who will be left in the water?
2. D
 id one person determine the outcast,
or did the group decide?
3. W
 hat did you notice about the characters social
status, and how did it affect their outcome?
4. Do you agree with the final decision?

1 7 A Noise Within 2015/16 Repertory Season

A FLEA IN HER EAR: RESOURCES

ARTICLES:

BOOKS:

Simon, John. In Brief: A Flea in Her EarNYMag.

com. New York Theater, n.d. Web.

A Flea in Her Ear: A New Version of Georges

Feydeaus Farce by David Ives. 2007.

Article Link: http://nymag.com/nymetro/arts/theater/

Feydeaus A Flea in Her Ear: The Art of Kinesthetic

Knorr, Katherine. Life in the Farce Lane - At Home

with Feydeau.Nytimes.com. The New York
Times, 27 Nov. 2002. Web.

Feydeau, First to Last: translated & with an

introduction by Norman R. Shapiro by Georges
Feydeau. 2001.

Article Link: http://www.nytimes.com/2002/11/27/

style/27iht-dindon_ed3_.html

Georges Feydeau (World Dramatists) by Leonard

Cabell Pronko

reviews/2357/

Rainford, Tyler. What a Farce! Georges Feydeau in

Fin-de-sicle France.Palatinate.org.uk. Palatinate
Online, 15 Oct. 2003. Web.
Article Link: http://www.palatinate.org.uk/?p=41661
Deck, Andrew. Comedy Explores Infidelity,
Celebrates Absurdity.Brown Daily Herald. N.p.,
02 Apr. 2015. Web.
Article Link: http://www.browndailyherald.
com/2015/04/03/comedy-explores-infidelity-
celebrates-absurdity/
Shapiro, Norman R. Suffering and Punishment in the
Theatre of Georges Feydeau. The Tulane Drama
Review 5:1 (1960): 117-126. Print. http://www.
jstor.org/stable/1124908?seq=1#page_scan_tab_
contents
Billington, Michael. A Flea in Her Ear Review.
Rev. of A Flea in Her Ear, dir. Richard Eyre. The
Guardian 10 December 2010. http://www.
theguardian.com/stage/2010/dec/15/a-flea-in-herear-review
1 8 A Noise Within 2015/16 Repertory Season

Structuring by Peter F. Parshall, 1981.

WEBSITES:
http://stageagent.com/shows/play/2123/a-flea-in-herear
http://www.uakron.edu/dotAsset/2776a2a4-f26e45e0-9764-0043d420a912.pdf
http://www.bard.org/about-the-playwright-a-flea-inher-ear/
http://www.dramaonlinelibrary.com/playwrights/
georges-feydeau-iid-12397
FILMS:
A Flea in Her Ear Dir. Jacques Charon. With Rex
Harrison, Rosemary Harris, and Louis Jourdan.
Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation, 1968.

About: Theatre Arts KEY THEATRICAL TERMS

Today, movies and television

take audiences away from what
was once the number one form
of amusement: going to the
theatre. But attending a live
theatrical performance is still
one of the most thrilling and
active forms of entertainment.

blocking: The instructions a

director gives his actors that tell
them how and where to move in
relation to each other or to the set
in a particular scene.

In a theatre, observers are

catapulted into the action,
especially at an intimate venue
like A Noise Within, whose
thrust stage reaches out into
the audience and whose actors
can see, hear, and feel the
response of the crowd.

conflict: The opposition of people

or forces which causes the plays
rising action.

Although playhouses in the

past could sometimes be
rowdy, participating in the
performance by giving respect
and attention to the actors is
the most appropriate behavior
at a theatrical performance
today. Shouting out (or even
whispering) can be heard
throughout the auditorium, as
can rustling paper or ringing
phones.
After A Noise Withins
performance of A Flea In
Her Ear, you will have the
opportunity to discuss the
plays content and style with
the performing artists and
directors. You may wish to
remind students to observe
the performance carefully or
to compile questions ahead of
time so they are prepared to
participate in the discussion.

1 9 A Noise Within 2015/16 Repertory Season

character: The personality or part

portrayed by an actor on stage.

dramatic irony: A dramatic

technique used by a writer in
which a character is unaware of
something the audience knows.
genre: Literally, kind or type.
In literary terms, genre refers to
the main types of literary form,
principally comedy and tragedy.
It can also refer to forms that are
more specific to a given historical
era, such as the revenge tragedy,
or to more specific sub-genres of
tragedy and comedy such as the
comedy of manners, farce or social
drama.
motivation: The situation or mood
which initiates an action. Actors
often look for their motivation
when they try to dissect how a
character thinks or acts.
props: Items carried on stage
by an actor to represent objects
mentioned in or implied by the
script. Sometimes the props
are actual, sometimes they are
manufactured in the theatre shop.

proscenium stage: There is usually

a front curtain on a proscenium
stage. The audience views the play
from the front through a frame
called the proscenium arch. In this
scenario, all audience members
have the same view of the actors.
set: The physical world created on
stage in which the action of the
play takes place.
setting: The environment in which
a play takes place. It may include
the historical period as well as the
physical space.
stage areas: The stage is divided
into areas to help the director to
note where action will take place.
Upstage is the area furthest from
the audience. Downstage is the
area closest to the audience.
Center stage defines the middle
of the playing space. Stage left
is the actors left as he faces the
audience. Stage right is the actors
right as he faces the audience.
theme: The overarching message
or main idea of a literary or
dramatic work. A recurring idea in
a play or story.
thrust stage: A stage that juts out
into the audience seating area so
that patrons are seated on three
sides. In this scenario, audience
members see the play from
varying viewpoints. A Noise Within
features a thrust stage.

About: A Noise Within

A NOISE WITHINS MISSION is to produce great works of world
drama and to foster appreciation of historys greatest plays and
playwrights through comprehensive educational programs. ANW
is the only theatre in Southern California and one of only a handful
in North America to exclusively produce year-round classical
dramatic literaturefrom master works by Euripides, Molire and
Shakespeare, to modern classics by Arthur Miller, Henrik Ibsen and
Samuel Beckettin rotating repertory with a company of classically
trained resident artists.
The company was formed in 1991 by founders Geoff Elliott and
Julia Rodriguez-Elliott, both of whom were classically trained at the
acclaimed American Conservatory Theatre in San Francisco. All of
A Noise Withins Resident Artists have been classically trained, and
many hold Master of Fine Arts degrees from some of the nations
most respected institutions.
In its 24 year history, A Noise Within has garnered over 500 awards
and commendations, including the Los Angeles Drama Critics
Circles revered Polly Warfield Award for Excellence and the
coveted Margaret Hartford Award for Sustained Excellence.
More than 27,000 individuals attend productions at A Noise Within
annually. In addition, the theatre draws nearly 14,000 students
participants to its arts education program, Classics Live! Students
benefit from in-classroom workshops, conservatory training,
subsidized tickets to matinee and evening performances, postperformance discussions with artists, and free standards-based
Study Guides.

Study Guides
A Noise Within creates study guides in
alignment with core reading, listening,
speaking, and performing arts standards
to help educators prepare their students
for their visit to our theatre. Study guides
are available at no extra cost to download
through our website: www.anoisewithin.
org. The information and activities outlined
in these guides are designed to work
in compliance with the California VAPA
standards, The Common Core, and
21st Century Learning Skills.
Study guides include background
information on the plays and playwrights,
historical context, textual analysis, in-depth
discussion of A Noise Withins artistic
interpretation of the work, statements
from directors and designers, as well as
discussion points and suggested classroom
activities. Guides from past seasons are
also available to download from the
website.

A Noise Withins vision is to become a national leader in the

production of classical theatre, creating an environment that
continues to attract the finest classical theatre artists, educates,
and inspires audiences of all ages, and trains the leading classical
theatre artists of tomorrow.

Californias Home for the Classics

Study Guide Credits
Alicia Green Education Director and Editor
Skip Nicholson Author
Craig Schwartz Production Photography
Teresa English Graphic Design
Anna Rodil Administrative Assistant
Leah Artenian Education Associate
Savannah Gilmore Education Intern

Californias Home for the Classics

Geoff Elliott & Julia Rodriguez-Elliott, Producing Artistic Directors
3352 E. Foothill Blvd., Pasadena, CA 91107
Tel 626.356.3100 / Fax 626.356.3120
anoisewithin.org

2 0 A Noise Within 2015/16 Repertory Season

Californias Home for the Classics

2 1 A Noise Within 2015/16 Repertory Season