“”Queer culture in an age of confinement“
Veronica Hannon
3.5 Stars
Venue : New Theatre
Sydney
Dates : Unitl March 8th 2025
The Flea looks at queer culture in an age of confinement. It looks at power and class. It seeks to explore these ideas with a wonderful, theatrical eccentricity.
Under the rule of Queen Victoria, heterosexuality was normalised. LGBT people were labelled as deviant. It was also an era synonymous with the workhouse howl, a cry of despair heard from the paupers within its walls. The beating heart of James Fritz‘s play is a mother and son on the edge of the underclass and way out of their depth as they expect justice in an unfair world.
London, 1889, and we are introduced to a household barely managing to keep a roof over its head after the breadwinner’s demise. The death, where a man is fatally kicked in the head by a horse, is inventively shown and is an example of Patrick Kennedy‘s production willingness to move beyond naturalism to a heightened style of presentation. The bereft widow and son, Emily and Charlie Swinslow (Sofie Divall and Samuel Ireland), face penury until the latter, a 15-year-old telegraph boy, is recruited into prostitution.
Fritz co-opts an actual late 19th-century event known as the Cleveland Street scandal, where young men working in the London Central Telegraph office were inducted into a brothel on account of the aristocratic customer’s preferences. It was rumoured that even
royal family members were regular visitors to the upmarket establishment. A discovery of 14 shillings in Charlie’s work locker sets the whole thing off, and as soon as the press gets a hold of it, the bluebloods are ducking for cover.
Fritz’s take on the saga leads the audience on a journey through the stratified layers of Victorian society. Both director and designer Kennedy puts his cast of five through their paces on a carnival funhouse set that incorporates video commentary. The actors, most
playing multiple roles, are fabulously costumed. It is a visual feast, and associate designer Tom Bannerman, contributing to his 292nd New Theatre production, has again worked his magic.
But for all the gorgeousness, the show often felt inert. The slowish scene changes didn’t help maintain the story’s momentum, and the ensemble was still getting comfortable with the multilayered set. Running at nearly three hours, including interval, the piece
could easily lose 20 minutes. Another week of performances should fix it, as the potential of this work is all too evident.
Photos by Chris Lundie
Veronica Hannon, Theatre Now
