One Flea Spare NYC Reviews and Tickets
Show-Score Member Reviews (65)
See it if you want to see 5 masterful actors perform in a great intimate venue
Don't see it if you prefer watching the Brooklyn Nets starting 5 attempt to play like a professional team
See it if you like apocalyptic settings. Not a date show. Clever Act I, but predictable Act II. Earlier curtain mid week would have been convenient.
Don't see it if Accents technically fine but distracting. Theater in the round seating is much too ambitious given audience demand for show, thus abandoned.
See it if for masterful acting with beautifully written dialogue that heightens the human condition and power plays between classes and age.
Don't see it if If you don't want to see a deep, dark, devastating play.
See it if You crave a true theatrical experience. Fine acting, dramatic yet humorous in depicting the foibles of humans facing real fears. Serious fun
Don't see it if Don't bring your children. The plague and power/sexual politics were inappropriate for the 10-year-old seated next to me. Strong stuff
See it if you like Naomi Wallace pieces
Don't see it if you don't like seeing shows in the round.
See it if you want a dark show with major "period" comedic highlights, or a morose, surprising story, with a great set, staging, and beautiful script.
Don't see it if you have a hard time understanding English accents, you are not interested in stories from this time period, you want something more upbeat Read more
See it if you're comfie with quirky but poignant tale & passionate acting, modest set, intimate space--in round, among tiny audience (24 when I went).
Don't see it if you need fleshed-out set and traditional stage & staging, an upbeat & contemporary story, passive experience, ample distance from action.
See it if You enjoy fantastic, almost poetic dialogue between interesting and peculiar characters, based in a historical setting. An excellent cast!
Don't see it if You do not enjoy strong story-lines and distinctive characters.
Critic Reviews (11)
"This is a very spare production...but one that is made incredibly compelling through exceptional performances and tight, complex writing...By stripping away all the distractions, the performances create an intimacy with the audience that is electric. Dialogue is the major star of this production, but excellent actors can elevate even the most thoughtfully written words to otherworldly places...This is a story the will stick with the viewer long after experiencing it."
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"The script surges with both beautifully poetic monologues and starkly blunt observations about death. Director Caitlin McLeod creates gripping scenes, smartly playing with levels of physicality in order to emphasize the games of power that the characters engage in together...The cast tends to make piercing, declaratory choices for important moments. However, they also find clever smaller moments to imbue their somewhat archetypal characters with humanity."
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"Director Caitlin McLeod scales down the sensations of an epic play to the intimacy of the black box of the Sheen Center beautifully...The approach of making eye contact with the audience, especially executed by Bonner and cast member Remy Zaken, connects and communicates the text directly in a palpable and powerful way...'One Flea Spare' is truly a masterpiece. Every element of the production exhibits unspoiled harmony."
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"Zaken maintains a remarkable, if manic, charm throughout. She is the flashpoint for much of the action and we rely on her Puckish energy to keep things moving...This was a tedious evening in the dark. It’s not so much that anything’s wrong as that it’s preternaturally grim. When the lights came down and up at the end of the first act my thought was: 'Thank you, Jesus! It’s over.' But it wasn’t."
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"Playwright Naomi Wallace is here intriguing and poetic. Historical description is trenchant. 'One Flea Spare' contains deep sensuality, volatile sex (not actually seen) and palpable seduction, all heightened by the nearness of death...Background stories are rich, relationships fascinating, characters well drawn. A horrible end works well...Except for the affected Gordon Joseph Weiss who acts as if he’s the only one onstage, the company is strong and cohesive."
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"Ably directed by Caitlin McLeod in an exceptionally rendered production...The script’s incredible word-craft lures us with grotesque, highly imagistic descriptions. Each of the characters speaks poetic descriptions and all of the actors master this poetry and song with rhythmic cadences that grip the audience and make us focus on the beauty of the language...What a heavenly, brilliant production of a great play."
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"Two relentless hours of powerful, if markedly cerebral, dialogue, with a number of narrative surprises...McLeod has staged the play with a great deal of dance-like movement that complements the musicality of Wallace’s text and depicts the play’s eroticism and violence vividly but with a certain delicacy. Despite occasional lapses in dialect, the five actors handle the lyrical qualities of the playwright’s lines and speeches effectively and function throughout as a balanced ensemble."
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"Wallace’s four main characters are savagely portrayed by the actors...It’s a challenging play for the director, the actors, and especially the audience...There’s no proverbial 'hero' in 'One Flea Spare.' However, if one of the missions of theater is to provoke, 'One Flea Spare' goes above and beyond. The story takes place in 1665, but the themes are eerily relevant 351 years later."
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