When Director John Shepard first read Naomi Wallace's "One Flea Spare" he was struck by both its poetry and its politics.
Set in London in 1665, "One Flea Spare" examines what happens when a natural disaster shatters class structure and when it is circumstance rather than social position, income or education that throws people together.
"I loved her voice. Not only is it poetic, but it is political," says Shepard, who has long been a fan of Wallace's work. "I think this is her very best play."
Originating as a commission by London's Bush Theatre, which produced it in 1995, "One Flea Spare" had its American premiere in 1996 at the Humana Festival of New Plays at the Actors Theatre in Louisville and its first New York production at the Joseph Papp Theater in 1997.
"It's kind of a grim play. It's also a really beautiful play," Shepard says. "The sensuality may offend some people."
In writing "One Flea Spare" in the mid-1990s, Wallace used the bubonic plague as a metaphor for the continuing AIDS crisis, Shepard says. But over this past summer, as Shepard did pre-production work on the play, it became ever more timely, he says.
As an earthquake in Pakistan was followed by the hurricane and flooding in New Orleans and then by discussions of possible quarantine measures to lessen the effects of a worldwide Avian flu pandemic, a play about four people unwillingly confined to a London townhouse for a prolonged period took on added interest.
Issues of government response and what that does to people became more timely, Shepard says. The cast of five -- Mary Rawson, Robert Haley, Ray Andrecheck, Joel Ripka and Chelsea Mervis -- must deal with eroticism as well as social disruption.
"The plague is almost secondary to what happens when you put two classes together," Shepard says. "There are odd relationships and weird juxtapositions. It's a really interesting treatise on the class system and what happens when there's no differences between where people are living."
The play is structured as a series of scenes separated by the passage of time. Each scene is almost a play itself, Shepard says. He didn't want to punctuate each scene with a blackout while actors and crew reset the stage for the next scene.
"The play is theatrical. The situations and poetry of the play are certainly theatrical," Shepard says. "We want to include the audience in this world and give them the claustrophobic experience of where our characters are going."
Rather than simulate reality, says Shepard, set designer Stephanie Mayer created a set that allows changes in places and time to occur in full view of the audience.
"I believe the audience would rather watch what's going on than sit in the dark, and I hate having crew on stage," Shepard says. "It's a fundamental issue of film versus theater. Let's let the audience watch the mechanics and see how we create something."
Additional Information:
Details
'One Flea Spare'Produced by: The Repertory Company of Point Park University.
When: Through Nov. 20, and Nov. 30 through Dec. 11. Performances: 8 p.m. Wednesdays through Saturdays and 2 p.m. Sundays.
Admission: $18 to $22.
Where: Pittsburgh Playhouse of Point Park University, 222 Craft Ave., Oakland.
Details: 412-621-4445 or www.pittsburghplayhouse.com .
