One Flea Spare

Wallace's One Flea Spare is nearly unbearably beautiful in its precise language and poetic images, such as a woman who has not been touched by her husband in years speaking of a horse burning in a stable fire. The characters are all stuck in both a real and a metaphorical prison (people did get locked into their houses in plague ridden England)and can not escape each other. The class system is suddenly kicked aside when all the characters find they must depend on one another for their very survival. It speaks politically but the voice is never pedantic, as the honesty of the narrator, a witty and relentlessly observant young girl strips the pretenses and defences of the the adults around her in ways that are startingly funny. The drama and suspense is fired up by the situation and by the building sexual tensions and confronations. Politics, voyeurism, poetry. It's all here. A brilliant work.

This startling and fresh drama actually takes place in 1665, and concerns two upper class Londoners who get locked into a house with a sailor and a mysterious little girl. Because a servant died of plague in the house, the house has been boarded up for thirty days. Therefore, the four occupants must spend this time together in confines too close for comfort. What transpires in this at times hilarious black comedy is a disturbing clash of classes, and an exploration of gender roles and the body.What is especially striking in the play is the erotic and strange love story between the sailor, Bunce, and the much older Darcy. Darcy's body has been badly burned from a childhood accident. In one scene of searing erotic intensity, Bunce touches her body in different places to see where she has feeling left. In another scene, Darcy puts her finger into a wound in Bunce's side. These are the sort of disturbing and erotic gender-bending scenes for which Wallace is known. This play will not disappoint!