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'A Flea in Her Ear' at Ashand High School Kyle Storie, left, Zoe Lishinsky, Jonathan Connolly and Tessa Buckley appear in Ashland High School's production of "A Flea in Her Ear," running through May 14. [Photo by Denise Baratta] Tuesday May 2, 2017 at 1:54 PM May 2, 2017 at 1:54 PM Laurie Heuston Revels When Raymonde Chandebise suspects her husband, Victor, a somewhat stressed insurance executive, is secretly having an affair, she and her friend, Lucienne, write an anonymous invitation that suggests a rendezvous at the Frisky Kitty Hotel. Not believing the letter was intended for him — and with no interest in such a tryst, Victor passes the invitation to his co-worker and gigolo, Tournel, who sets off to take his place. Meanwhile, Lucienne's jealous Spanish husband finds the letter, recognizes his wife's handwriting and takes his pistols to the Frisky Kitty, hoping to catch her in the act. The comedy spins faster when all parties return to the Chandebise household utterly confused. Liisa Ivary directs this cast of 40 — with Jonathan Connolly as Victor, Tessa Buckley as Raymonde, Zoe Lishinsky as Lucienne and Isaiah Brown as Tournel — in playwright David Ives' version of Georges Feydeau's early 1900 farce, "A Flea in Her Ear," a wild and speedy romp through marital folly and miscommunication. The cast also features Nicky Clary, Ari Albertson, Julia Laurensen, Michael Burt, Dylan Kistler, Sienna Ross, Sierra Milburn, Avram Rosewood, Henry Alexander, McKenzie Baratta, Ava Hearn and Eliza Strong. Performances are set for 7:30 p.m. Thursday through Saturday, May 4-6, and Thursday and Friday, May 11-12, in the Mountain Avenue Theatre at Ashland High School, 201 S. Mountain Ave., Ashland. An earlier show is set for 7 p.m. Saturday, May 13, and matinees are set for 2 p.m. Sundays, May 7 and 14. Tickets are $15 for reserved seats (available only online at showtix4u.com), $10 for general seating, $7 for seniors and students. Tickets can be purchased at www.showtix4u.com, by calling 866-967-8167, or at Paddington Station, Tree House Books or Music Coop. Call 541-482-8771 for information, or 541-840-6410 for group sales. "Feydeau's farce is the mother of all farces," Ivary says during a phone interview. "The first big one by which all others are judged. Ives simply has a different translation. It's a slightly adapted version of Feydeau's plot, but it's a little easier to understand as the original play's French is antiquated. "I can't remember who said this, but 'farce is tragedy sped up,'" she says. "It requires precision. The kids are bringing a lot to it, and, for me, it's about teaching them a style that is clean and precise, not hammery, not like slapstick. Farce is a specific set of skills, especially with language and pacing." The large AHS cast has had the chance to work with Oregon Shakespeare Festival's resident fight director U. Jonathan Toppo. There are many fights, slaps, punches and throws in "A Flea in Her Ear," and the students worked with Toppo during three full rehearsal sessions. Ivary and Los Angeles choreographer Jaclyn Miller — who's worked on OSF's "Cocoanuts," "Twelfth Night" and other productions at the Ashland festival— collaborated for three weeks on a can-can that fills the second intermission of the 2½ hours play. "I didn't want to use the time for a second intermission," Ivary says. "So we created a can-can, I call it the "door ballet," that is in front of the giant shift from one set to another on stage. The dance is huge, almost the entire cast is involved. Members of the tech crew are dressed in black and white and are on stage in full view as well. The dance includes chases that go into the audience. It's all very intricate and precise. "The crew has built ingenious sets that can move from one to another. The first scene is at the Chandebise household. It's full of door units — a farce has slamming doors — that roll off the stage for the scene at the Frisky Kitty. Then the first set rolls back on stage. You should see backstage. It's like a puzzle back there." Scenic design — set in the "Belle Époque," or Beautiful Era, in Paris — is by Doug Ham, costume design is by B. Reeves, technical director is Jesse Purkerson and lighting is by Bart Grady. Twenty-three tech students run the show backstage. "Because it's incredibly sexist that it's OK for men to have affairs but not OK for women to do the same, it's just better to leave the play set in the period it was written," Ivary says. "The play's theme is about miscommunication. We use different dialects, and we have a Spaniard who is the only person who understands the nephew with a speech impediment. The characters not only misunderstand each other, they do not clarify their intentions. The farce continues to build on these mistakes. It's really fun. You have these archetypes, but underneath they're very real. You have a character who is insecure about his marriage and another who is really jealous. The way they behave is funny, but at the core there is truth under it. That's where farce is. So you have people misbehaving because they won't listen to each other." Ivary's credits are many. She directed AHS' "Lend Me a Tenor" and "Leading Ladies," and she's been a member of the OSF acting company for seven seasons, to name a few. She holds a bachelor of arts from Santa Clara University in California and a master's of fine arts from the American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco.