'A Flea in Her Ear' runs March 19-28

For its final stage production of the season, Grand Valley State University's theatre program will leave audiences laughing with George Feydeau's 'A Flea in Her Ear,' considered by some to be one of the funniest plays ever written.

The comedy runs for seven performances March 19-28 at the Louis Armstrong Theatre, Performing Arts Center on the Allendale Campus. Show times are at 7:30 p.m. March 19, 20, 25, 26, and 27, and at 2 p.m. on Sundays, March 21 and 28. All ages are welcome, although the zany, racy plot involves some adult language.

Tickets are $12 general public, $10 for GVSU faculty/staff/alumni, and $6 for all students, available at Star Tickets Plus (for a fee) at (616) 222-4000, 800-585-3737, or www.starticketsplus.net . Tickets may also be purchased at the PAC box office, open weekdays and one hour before performances. For more information, call the box office at 331-2300.

The plot of 'A Flea in Her Ear' is set in motion by the suspicions of a jealous wife, Raymonde, and her harebrained scheme in Act One to test the fidelity of her husband, Victor Emmanuel, with the assistance of her friend Lucienne. Together the women pen a passionate message from an imaginary admirer inviting Victor Emmanuel to a delicious rendezvous at a posh local beach club. When the ladies secretly turn up at the resort in Act Two to learn whether or not Raymonde's husband presents himself, they discover instead their friends, family, household servants, Lucienne's insanely jealous husband, and others also having afternoon rendezvous at the spa. The resulting confusion explodes in hilarious misunderstandings, mistaken identities, and scandalously embarrassing encounters that require the entirety of Act Three to unravel and put to rest.

Although the play was originally written in 1907 and set in Paris, GVSU's production is relocated to the extravagant, ultra-rich world of the contemporary French Riviera, and all Feydeau's characters are either members or hangers-on of high society.

Veteran GVSU Theatre professor Roger Ellis will direct the farce. 'Feydeau is so modern,' Ellis declares, 'prefiguring our concerns with the theatre of the absurd and societal decadence without sentimentalizing either. He's not very optimistic about human potential, nor is he very PC. The play lampoons oversexed women and the men who share their company, it crucifies Germans and Frenchmen alike, and finds immense humor in physical handicaps and sexual perversion.'

Sets and lights are designed by GVSU faculty member Alfred Sheffield, costumes by Jill Dole Hamilton. Choreography is by faculty artist Robin Reese, actress and director from New York

The 22-member student cast includes Amy Larink and Scott Lange in the leading roles of Raymonde and Victor Emmanuel; Claire Walsh and Patrick Holt as Raymonde's confidant Lucienne and her husband Don Homenides; Susan Block and Kristin Ellison as the two saucy French maids; and Scott Rosendall portraying Herr Schwarz, the German playboy. Man-about-town Tournel, desperately in love with Raymonde, is portrayed by Nicholas Podehl, and Finache the family doctor is played by Lewis Barnes.

Other student actors are Christian Vigrass, Michael Empson, Dustin Mason, Sheila Turner, Zachary Schnitter, Sara Stevens, Sean Mogeridge, Eve Porcello, Adam Werth, Candace Rowland, and Ken Phelps.