Actors Theatre

The following articles appeared in Actors Theatre's subscriber newsletter prior to the 1996 Humana Festival

Fleeing plague in the streets of 1665 London, a poor sailor and a waif steal indoors, only to discover themselves quarantined for a month with the Master and Mistress of the house. As fears of the outside world turn inwardly to jealousy and suspicion, the gentry and underclass boarded in together wait for either freedom or death. This searing and lyrical drama explores the politics of compassion within the shadow of the grave.

BEHIND LOCKED DOORS
"…What are you doing out of your grave? Speak to me, girl, or you’ll stay here till it’s know. What happened to the Gentleman? What happened to his wife? Whose blood is on your sleeve?

"The blood of a fish. Is on my sleeves. Because. The fish. The fish were burning in the channels. Whole schools of them on fire..."

So begins a young girl’s story of a darkly fascinating time. Her home was London, besieged by the Great Plague of 1665. But her scars are not those of disease. Rather, she’s more deeply marked by people. Quarantined with strangers for four weeks, the young girl’s vivid memories focus on how these adults dealt with their fear and how they treated each other in moments of crisis.

The young girl’s name is Morse. She claims to belong to a wealthy family, though there’s some doubt about that. After the death of her parents, Morse took secret refuge in the home of William and Darcy Snelgrave, representatives of the newly enfranchised "middle-class" in England. But when the Snelgraves encounter this waif, they also discover a sailor in hiding named Bunce.

The appearance of Bunce is noted by the local authority, an officious and corrupt watchman named Kobe. As agent of the government-in-exile (King Charles II fled to Oxford to escape the plague,) Kobe imprisons them all by noil-ing shut and standing guard outside the Snelgrave door. A month later, when the nails are removed, everything has changed.

Dealing with the conflicting pressures of self-preservation and compassion, these four strangers work out a living arrangement based on the class structure of London. That means Mr. Snelgrave’s in charge, of course. But confinement breeds many things in society: curiosity, desire, jealousy, cruelty—all of which undermine the tenuous stability of this social microcosm. On the other hand, the frustrations of forced proximity can create a good deal of humor, which manages equally well to subvert the status quo.

"Reactions to plague, like reactions to other disasters, provide rich material for imaginative writers," wrote scholar Paul Slack, "because they encapsulate in a single incident the whole range of human strengths and weaknesses. They illustrate the resilience and the perversity of humanity." In One Flea Spare, playwright Naomi Wallace explores this rich material with a particular interest in social class and issues of space—the ways it’s allocated to isolate certain groups, and the effects of that isolation on the community at large.

The setting may be historical, but as the saying goes, "Plagues bend history." So 1665 becomes a mirror for 1996. Seeing our own image in a looking-glass so far removed has real benefits, according to Wallace, who explained, "Looking at these contemporary issues in another time and place can make them fresh again."

The Humana Festival introduces America to One Flea Spare, which was commissioned by and debuted at London’s Bush Theatre last October. Of that production, the British critics wrote admiringly of Wallace’s lyrical dialogue and dramatic bravado. "A demanding and inspired piece of theatre," read The Guardian. Time Out praised the work as "An exquisite revelation of the longings of the human heart." And The Times called it, "Thrillingly original...marvelously comic... impeccable and deeply moving."

— Michael Bigelow Dixon

NAOMI WALLACE
Growing up on a farm, "I never went to the theatre as a kid," states Naomi Wallace, "but I am glad I grew up in Kentucky." Raised in Prospect, Wallace learned the power of language at an early age and began writing poetry at age eight. "A lot of language I write I learned from what I grew up with, listening to others who were different than me."

Wallace has exhibited her mastery of language in several media. As a poet, a collection of her works, To Dance a Stony Field, has been published in England. As a playwright, Wallace’s work has garnered the attention and respect of London audiences and critics. She received a Susan Smith Blackburn Prize for In the Heart of America, first presented at the Bush Theatre in London. Tony Kushner, who workshopped In the Heart of America at Long Wharf Theatre, described Wallace as "among the most informed, serious, committed political intelligences I’ve encountered in an American theatre artist." Kushner also stated that "her writing is thoroughly alive: it celebrates human complexity, contrariness, perversity and unpredictability; and because she is a serious poet she addresses her subjects with language that is beautiful, unsentimental and precise."

Subtitled "A Gulf War Drama," In the Heart of America analyzes how people engaged in the daily act of killing people still "fall deeply in love, and how the human body copes with those conflicting emotions." With Wallace’s empathetic presentation of the soldiers, In the Heart of America displays her ability to write male characters. Wallace dismisses the idea of understanding the male frame of mind, however, stating that she doesn’t recognize any real difference between the sexes. "There is no essential sexuality; Maleness and Femaleness are something we are dressed in," Wallace told reporter Alex Bannock.

In January 1996, Wallace’s play Slaughter City premiered at the Royal Shakespeare Company in London. Inspired by the strike at Fischer’s Meat Packing Company in Louisville, Slaughter City focuses upon labor struggles in America. "In this play, Wallace explores the idea of the body in its relation to labor, be it male or female," Bannock reports. "Eventually it is destroyed, either by chemicals or hard labor, and when it breaks down it is thrown aside and new labor is brought in."

Although she began her writing career as a poet, Wallace realized that the dramatic voice and tone she employed in her poetry could apply equally to the stage. She now enjoys merging her poetic talents with her interests in theatre and is a firm believer in the power of language. "I believe in the power of the imagination to enact scenes as opposed to people enacting them. I believe a monologue can do that. I believe that’s where my strengths lie."

— Jeffrey Ullom

Naomi Wallace donated all royalties from One Flea Spare to the Fairness Campaign in Louisville, Kentucky