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EVIDENCE ROOM PRESENTS Cast Morse - Ames Ingham/ Director - Bart DeLorenzo Producer - Bart DeLorenzo September 12 - October 24, 1998 Reviews BackStage West The Evidence Room has resurfaced after an unfortunately stratospheric jump in rent at its previous Culver City warehouse venue. Its premiere production at the nearby Ivy Substation is the powerful Obie Award-winning One Flea Spare. Kentucky expatriate Naomi Wallace, now working in the United Kingdom, has crafted a stunningly visceral depiction of the bubonic plague in one particular Westminster household in 1665. In a cell of confinement, Morse (Ames Ingham) endures whipcracks to take her tormentors back to the beginning of a woeful tale, as she finds her way into the household of the arrogant William Snelgrave (Tom Fitzpatrick) and his somber wife Darcy, a burn victim (Pamela Gordon). Morse claims her parents are dead, and sailor Bunce (Christan Leffler) joins her as a servant under virtual house arrest, as crude streetperson Kabe (David Titzler) tortures them outside the boarded-up residence with "the bills," statistical updates on the plague-related deaths around them. What goes on within the walls includes sexual power plays, terrifying admissions, and humiliations regarding the conditions of their bodies. Wallace’s rich dialogue and lacerating imagery is wonderfully played by Fitzpatrick, as imperious as he is impervious to others’ pain. He coaches the simmering Leffler to imitate his stride "as if walking across the hands of children." Gordon's disfigured character seeps anguish, but her dialect at times deserts her. Titzler's accent is noticeably deficient, which is the only major weak point in this tremendous production. Providing narrative focus and a brilliantly layered performance, Ingham is totally absorbing, whether as a mischievous 12-year-old or as a heartbreakingly young woman made old before her time, who laments, "You can't break my heart. It’s made of water." Bart DeLorenzo’s direction on the dizzyingly raked stage is expert, and he has stylishly incorporated exceptional design elements, including a smashing sound design by John Zalewski, which ranges from eerie, echoing screams to spatially specific street sounds to Gothically fierce organ music to complement this hellaciously effective work.– Brad Schreiber Los Angeles Times When John Donne wrote, "in this flea our two bloods mingled be . . . three lives in one flea spare," his topic was thwarted love. Three decades after Donne’s death, the blood of London’s mighty mingled with the lowly in disease-ridden fleas. In her grimly insightful One Flea Spare, an Evidence Room production at the Ivy Substation, Naomi Wallace writes about the lack of love between the classes during the 1665 Great Plague. When their servants die from the plague, the wealthy William (Tom Fitzpatrick) and Darcy (Pamela Gordon) Snelgrave are confined to their house. A sleazy, opportunistic guard (David Titzler) prevents their escape. A young girl of questionable background (Ames Ingham) and a sailor (Christian Leffler) break into the house, immediately joining the Snelgraves as prisoners of the quarantine. Wallace examines the breakdown of class restrictions and the repressed sexual curiosity about the forbidden other. She veers at times into turgid morass, but under the adept direction of Bart DeLorenzo, this production has an engrossing darkness elevated by ludicrously funny moments. Fitzpatrick’s William is a grasping, conceited man. Gordon’s Darcy shows brief glimmers of humanity as her life is touched by Ingram’s childlike girl and Leffler’s sensible sailor. Titzler serves as a jester, absurd in his greed and superstitious sincerity. Allison Achauer’s costumes contrast excessive ornamentation and spare utility, while Jason Adams’ set suggests a once-comfortable world slightly tilted off its axis. It’s a place where man is humbled by something as common as a flea.– Jana J. Monji |
