echoandthevaskians 's review for:

One Flea Spare by Naomi Wallace

4.0

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When this was recommended to me this past spring (2020), I was shocked that I hadn't read any more of Wallace's work beyond "In the Heart of America" years ago. This play is mostly realistic, highly poetic in language ("rough poetry" as Wallace calls it), and wonderfully weird in some places. It's static overall but yet covers immense personal change (or does it?). Like many of us have wondered living through smaller lives confined to homes and apartments, does that slow down change us or just reveal more of who we really are? Reviewers from the original productions repeatedly noted "we don't know the circumstances under which these characters are living", but my audiences this spring will. I'm excited to see what comes to the surface for all of us and what opportunities it presents.