Flea in her Ear

"Georges Feydeau (1862-1921) is best known for his enduring farces, such as 'A Flea in her Ear', yet he wrote over 20 monologues for actors to perform at charity concerts and in fashionable drawing rooms. John Mortimer was a playwright, novelist and, prior to that, a practising barrister. During the war he worked for the Crown Film Unit and published a number of novels before turning to the theatre. His plays include A Voyage Round My Father (which he later adapted for Thames Television), Naked Justice, Hock and Soda Water and The Dock Brief. He wrote many fi lm scripts and radio and television plays including six plays on the life of Shakespeare for ATV and the adaptation of Evelyn Waugh's novel Brideshead Revisited for Granada. "

"Where does one begin in praising Feydeau? Perhaps with the thrift and beauty of his plotting... The result is a heartlessly funny evening of whirlwind insanity; and my new year wish is that we return to a genre that Eric Bentley once dubbed "the quintessence of theatre."—Michael Billington, Guardian"There's plenty here to suggest similarities between Feydeau and Basil Fawlty's demented world... and John Mortimer's translation still seems fresh after more than 40 years..."—Henry Hitchings, Evening Standard"Blissfully funny...Beautifully mounting delirium of split-second synchronicities, ridiculous revolving beds, and myriad misunderstandings, the hilarity heightened by the wit"—Paul Taylor, The Independent"The very essence of belle-époque frivolity, but it does have an incredible level of structural organisation, which that Feydeau, although a famously idle fellow, must have had the mind of a first-class mathematician..."—Christopher Hart, The Sunday Times"According to the late John Mortimer, 'farce is tragedy played at a thousand revolutions a minute'. And he should know, having done the sparkling translation for Richard Eyre's delightful revival of Feydeau's best-known farce."—Georgina Brown, The Mail on Sunday