A farce for all seasons: 'A Flea in Her Ear'

By Michael Muckian, The Wisconsin Gazette

July 25, 2017

When a husband loses amorous interest in his much younger wife, can there be any reason other than his infidelity?

What self-respecting wife would not want to set and spring the trap on her philandering spouse, catching him red-handed with his presumed paramour in a hotel of questionable repute?

And what does any of it mean, anyway, when the couple’s entire social circle — and presumably the whole of Parisian society — is threaded through with such infidelities?

Such questions drive the action in Georges Feydau’s A Flea in Her Ear, currently being performed by American Players Theatre on the company’s new multi-million-dollar outdoor stage.

The 1907 comedy is a farce for all seasons, which this year once again means both rain and shine. Director David Frank, APT’s artistic director emeritus, puts his cast of 18 through its rapid-fire and riotous paces, allowing them to do what the company does so well to hilarious effect.

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