The Department of Theatre will present One Flea Spare by Naomi Wallace. The play, set in 1665 while London is being ravaged by the bubonic plague, borrows its title from a John Donne poem and is written by contemporary playwright Naomi Wallace, a recipient of a MacArthur Foundation Genius grant.
The story centers on an upper-class merchant and his wife, the owners and the only residents of a home where the plague has taken lives, who are about to be released from a month-long quarantine period. Suddenly, two unexpected and unwelcome visitors, a young girl, Morse, and a sailor, Bunce, burst into their lives. These lower class additions, (as they all co-mingle like the blood in Donne’s flea) prove volatile to a household already diseased with the festering sores of anger and frustration, lust and pain. As the social hierarchy collapses and sexual inhibitions are loosened, these “prisoners” wait for death to either strike them down or pass them by.
The play will run Wednesday, January 13 through Sunday, January 17, with a second run Tuesday, January 19 through Sunday, January 24. The production will take place in the Chapel Theatre, 172 Calhoun St. Curtain times will be at 8 p.m., except the Sunday performances, which are matinees only at 3 p.m. Tickets may be purchased at the box office (room 322, of the new arts building) or by telephone 843.953.5604. Admission is $15 for general admission and $10 for College of Charleston students, faculty and staff and senior citizens 60 and older. The “Talkback” discussions with the cast and crew will take place opening night following the performance.