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“Not everyone dies of the plague” was the ominous foreshadowing in the Metropolitan Ensemble Theatre’s latest production, Naomi Wallace’s One Flea Spare. It was a heavy, dark tale set during the Great Plague of London. The cast excelled in this challenging drama in which tensions rode high.

All the action took place in a single grand room of the home of a well-to-do couple, Mr. and Mrs. Snelgrave. They were quarantined in their house for fear of infection from the bubonic plague that’s terrorizing London in 1665. A young girl named Morse and a sailor named Bunce have sneaked into their house seeking food and refuge and are locked in with them. This room acts as a Petri dish of tension as the four battle fear, hunger, death, sexuality, fantasy, their pasts and secrets. The final character was Kabe, a guard-cum-town crier, their only link to the outside world.

Director Karen Paisley performs triple duty with this production, also designing the set and playing the role of Mrs. Snelgrave. Though the audience sat along either side of the stage, the direction proved effective with monologues that equally addressed both sides and with action and conversations take place across the audience’s line of vision, instead of in front of it. Having the town crier’s path come from off-stage, behind and around the audience, further enveloped them in the drama and heightening the claustrophobic aspects of the work.

The character of Mrs. Snelgrave had the subtlest, yet greatest, emotional transition; Paisley performed with an austere formality that slowly dissolved into raw emotion. The character was cold and withholding at first, but the ties that bound unraveled from her past loyalties to encompass new relationships.

By contrast, Mr. Snelgrave, played by Robert Gibby Brand, had the most drastic alteration of character, from a chilly, grudgingly welcoming gentleman, to a slightly friendly fellowman, to a bitter, caustic husband and unwilling host whose jealousy causes him to come unhinged. During the final act, Brand’s onstage presence was both frightening and impressive.

Probably one of the hardest roles to cast was Morse, a twelve-year-old girl with a complicated mix of naivety and wisdom and an uncanny ability to read other people. Emily Boresow played the part with a fresh grace as the conniving child that is trying to survive. The role called for strangely worked monologues that seemed all parts memory, prophecy, and hallucination. Boresow performed these with a justly odd mix of pleading and defiance, innocence and sorrow.

The land-bound sailor, Bunce, was played by Jay Akin. The character was at once the most out-of-place and the most honest about his station, purpose, and past. Bunce was a source of lascivious fascination for both Snelgraves and Akin played him with a calm defiance of their perceived class differences and demands. Akin avoided cruel caricature and presented a sophisticated character.

Scott Cordes round out the cast as Kabe, a crude, unkempt peasant who has taken advantage of this upheaval in the social spectrum. He seemed to revel in describing the dead and dying. Cordes had a raw energy, a bullying and mischievous air of a ne’er-do-well with the upper hand. With each appearance, he brought a darkly comic atmosphere that emphasized the distress and helplessness of the other characters.

Though the actors presented dynamic performances, the construction of the play was confusing at times, especially Morse’s monologues. Adding to the confusion were the brief slips in accents. The tone was further hindered by the incidental sounds during Morse’s “episodes.” The sounds clips were too directed, literally emphasizing what the text was describing. It would have been more effective to have the words without addition sounds. It didn’t help that the position of the speaker behind me sometimes drowned out the words from the stage.

The costume design by Georgianna Londre was essential to establishing the character types and subtly alluding to the changes throughout the play. The elaborate costumes of the Snelgraves contrasted to Bunce’s simple garb; attention to detail on both ends of the spectrum shone.

This demanding play conjures up the putrid stench of this historical period. The ensemble presented exceptional performances with a humanizing forcefulness that brought to life the terror and chaos of that uncertain time.

REVIEW:
Metropolitan Ensemble Theatre
One Flea Spare
Runs through January 23; Reviewed Friday, January 7 at 7:30 PM
3614 Main Street, Kansas City, Missouri
For more information go to www.metkc.org or call 816-569-3226

Top Photo: Scott Cordes as Kabe

By Libby Hanssen

Traditional and New Classical, Theatre Contributor

Libby Hanssen holds degrees from University of Missouri-Kansas City (M.M.) and Ball State University (B.M.) in trombone performance and also studied music education at Indiana University. She has studied trombone with Carl Lenthe, JoDee Davis, John Seidel, John Huntoon and Denis Wick, and music education with Brent Gault, Estelle Jorgensen and Katherine Strand.

While at IU, she taught classes in general music, focusing on listening skills and music fundamentals through practical music usage and exploring new sound constructions. During the course of her studies at UMKC, she performed with many ensembles, including the Conservatory Orchestra and Musica Nova. She has also performed with the Kansas City Puccini Festival, the People's Liberation Big Band of Greater Kansas City, the New Jazz Order, the Indiana Wind Symphony and the Muncie Symphony Orchestra.

In 2010, she was a fellow (one of 23 journalists selected from across the US) for the seventh annual National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) Arts Journalism Institute in Classical Music and Opera at Columbia University’s Journalism School in New York City.

Most of her free time is spent with her three boys (son, dog and husband) and camera, exploring the many fine aspects of Kansas City living. She enjoys listening to KKFI - Kansas City Community Radio and KCUR - Kansas City's NPR station, visiting Kansas City's fine collection of museums and galleries, and scavenging in thrift and antique stores to add to her collection of toy instruments.

She writes for the joy of words and the process of constructing a story, maintaining the blog Proust Eats a Sandwich (www.prousteatsasandwich.wordpress.com). She is working on her first book: Murray Goes to the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art.