By Mary Whitfill, News Correspondent
Northeastern’s theatre department raised the curtain Tuesday on its newest show, the five-actor production of Naomi Wallace’s play “One Flea Spare.”
Set in plague-ravaged 17th century London, the play tells the story of four people quarantined together for 28 days. Fearing both each other and the threat of infection, these strangers clash on social, cultural and sexual boundaries in this dark and humorous production.
Twenty-five Northeastern theater students, along with five faculty members, make up the cast and crew of “One Flea Spare.” Professor Janet Bobcean, current producer for the theatre department and director of the show said, despite the small cast, she believes this show was the right pick.
“I’ve wanted to do this show for several years but because the cast is so small I didn’t think it would be appropriate,” Bobcean said. “But our second show this semester is a musical so it was the natural position for a small, intense, complicated, metaphoric show to balance out what is a fun, beautiful musical.”
Set in London in 1665, the year of the Great Plague, the wealthy Snelgrave couple, played by seniors Danny Belford and Alannah O’Hagan, are on the brink of fleeing the infested city after being locked in their home for four weeks following the death of their servants. When an orphan and a sailor, played by senior Rachael Ulrich and junior Ari Shvartsman respectively, are found seeking shelter in the couple’s cellar, the Snelgraves’ plan is ruined. Once discovered, the house is quarantined and the four strangers are trapped within its narrow walls for another 28 days.
Dependent on only a corrupt guard, played by senior Tarek Ariss, for food and information, the play follows the shifting social constructs of the time as large numbers of people die outside the walls of the house and society dissolves in response to the plague’s devastation.
“Most of the scenes in this play, especially the high conflict ones, are one-on-one and you really get to play off of one another,” Shvartsman said. “It’s really really fun having such a small cast.”
As the department’s first play of the fall semester, the cast and crew of “One Flea Spare” are aiming to set the bar high with their costumes, set, music choices and acting performances.
“I think there is a real ‘open door’ nature about the work, trying to involve everyone in the university as we can both as makers and as viewers,” lighting and set designer Justin Townsend said. “And at the same time, recognize that we have to hold a bar up and ask everyone to rise to it so we are making a piece of work that everyone can look at each other and say ‘we are proud of what we made.’”
Within the small cast, character development is dependent on costuming, as well as the monologues of performers, to accurately display each character’s mental development, social status and economic conditions. Costume designer Frances McSherry created the wardrobes for the five characters.
“[For this play] I hope you really believe that the characters are who they say they are, because if you don’t believe it, it really takes the audience member out of the show and makes it difficult to understand what is going on,” McSherry said. “My goal is to make my costumes so unnoticeable that you are just immersed in the play.”
The production will run until Oct. 21, showing at 8 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday and 2 p.m. on Sundays. Tickets to Tuesday and Wednesday’s shows are discounted from $15 to $12, and students purchasing tickets through myNEU receive a $2 discount per ticket.
“I’ve worked a lot and I think this is a really cool play and I’d like as many people as possible to see it,” Shvartsman said. “I was talking with some other cast members and they were talking about how the first show they saw at Northeastern wowed them with production value. We don’t have too much, but we always try to be professional.”
