Delaware's REP Presents A FLEA IN HER EAR in Co-production With Westport Country Playhouse

A perfumed letter, a seedy hotel and a pack of wacky characters bring 1907 Paris to Delaware in the Resident Ensemble Players (REP) production A Flea in Her Ear, a new version of Georges Feydeau's farce, written by David Ives, Mar. 1 through Mar. 18, in the Roselle Center for the Arts, Newark, DE. Internationally renowned director, Mark Lamos, returns to the REP to stage the bawdy bedroom comedy.

A Flea in Her Ear is a co-production with Connecticut's Westport Country Playhouse, where Mr. Lamos is the artistic director.

Love and lust are in the air in this French farce of wild accusations, mistaken identities and bed-revolving mayhem. Loving wife Raymonde suspects her husband of infidelity and turns to her best friend to help gain proof. Together they compose an anonymous love note to set up a phony rendezvous at the Frisky Puss Hotel, only to have their missive fall into the wrong hands and instigate a whirlwind of ribald misunderstandings.

Mr. Lamos first directed at the Thompson Theatre when he staged Peter Pan, the inaugural theatre production for the opening of the Roselle Center for the Arts in 2006. He returned in 2013 to direct the REP's production of Hamlet.

"I'm delighted to return to Delaware and work with the REP," says Mr. Lamos. "Working with a professional acting ensemble like the REP is an excellent way to begin the process of putting together this mad comedy.

"Flea is one of the perfect farces. It's a piece about, as I guess all comedy is, a terrible lack of communication. Everything turns out to be a terrifying, existential mistake. The story begins as this quiet comedy and then turns into this insane carousel that just loses its pins and won't stop, throwing everyone into total, hilarious disarray."

The design team includes Kristen Robinson, scenic design; Sara Jean Tosetti, costume design; Matthew Richards, lighting design; and Fitz Patton and Michael Bodeen, sound design.

REP company member in the cast include Mic Matarrese as Camille, Hassan El-Amin as Dr. Finache, Antoinette Robinson as Lucienne, Elizabeth Heflin as Raymonde, Lee E. Ernst as Victor, Stephen Pelinski as Tournel, and Michael Gotch as Don Carlos. Other members of the Actors' Equity Association in the cast include David Beach as Etienne, Sara J. Griffin as Antoinette, Laura Frye and Eugenie, John Rensenhouse as Ferraillon, Deena Burke as Olympia, Wynn Harmon as Baptiste, and Robert Adelman Hancock as Rugby.

Performances begin Thursday, Mar. 1, and run through Sunday, Mar.18, in the Thompson Theatre at the University's Roselle Center for the Arts in Newark, Delaware. Opening night/Press night is Saturday, Mar. 3. Special guest speakers will discuss aspects of the production during free pre-show presentations on Saturday, Mar. 10 and Sunday, Mar. 18. Talkbacks with the cast take place on Thursday, Mar. 8 and Friday, Mar. 16.

For more information and to purchase tickets, visit www.rep.udel.edu, or call the box office at (302) 831-2204 or visit the REP box office in the Roselle Center for the Arts, 110 Orchard Rd., Newark, DE. Single tickets are $26-$31, with discounts available for seniors, full-time students, military and groups of 10 or more.

REP productions are supported, in part, by a grant from the Delaware Division of the Arts, a state agency, in partnership with the National Endowment for the Arts. The Division promotes Delaware arts events on www.DelawareScene.com.

ABOUT THE REP

The Resident Ensemble Players (REP) is a professional theatre company located at the University of Delaware. The REP's mission is to engage audiences throughout the tri-state region and beyond with frequent productions of outstanding classic, modern and contemporary plays performed in a wide variety of styles that celebrate and demonstrate the range and breadth of each resident actor in this ensemble of nationally respected stage actors who have been trained in the same way.

The REP is committed to create future audiences for live theatre by offering its productions at low prices that enable and encourage the attendance of everyone in the region, regardless of income.

(Photo: Robert Adelman Hancock as Rugby and Lee E. Ernst as Victor.)

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