Magnet Theatre’s Fulltime Training and Job Creation Programme 2025/2026 presents A Flea in Her Ear by Georges Feydeau, translated by John Mortimer, for a limited run from 24 -27 June 2026.
The iconic French farce is directed by award-winning Qondiswa James and features the 7th cohort of trainees in their second year of training at Magnet Theatre.
Was there ever a wife who didn’t wonder if her husband was unfaithful? And a best friend who didn’t offer to find out? Raymonde Chandebisse, suspecting her husband Victor of having an affair, plots to catch him in the act. Mistaken identity, trysts, and a gun-toting jealous husband make for a huge amount of fun. Mistakes, mayhem and marital misunderstandings erupt in a love hotel – doors slam, clothes go missing, and everyone ends up in the wrong beds!
Written in 1907, the play remains remarkably sharp and engaging for a contemporary South African audience. The genre’s trademark chaotic energy and satirical bite provide a cathartic way to confront our own social absurdities while offering audiences a necessary escape through laughter. Feydau’s farce brilliantly pokes fun at the fragility of human relationships and how quickly they can unravel under the pressure of suspicion, pride, jealousy and desire. The desperate need to protect reputation at all costs – coupled with an almost total failure of honest communication – reveals characters whose impulses and contradictions feel strikingly familiar.
Vibrant, playful and electric
This translation by John Mortimer is directed by one of South Africa’s most exciting theatre-makers: the groundbreaking and award-winning Qondiswa James. Her recent play Amaxelegu was presented in collaboration with the Market Theatre at Magnet Theatre earlier this year. Known for her bold explorations of intimacy, power, social performance and human contradiction that are unique to South Africa, James brings a fresh theatrical vitality to this classic comedy of errors.
Audiences can expect something vibrant, playful and electric – a collision between the razor-sharp mechanics of early twentieth-century farce and the dynamism and physicality of the incredibly talented cohort of young performers from the Magnet Theatre Full-time Training and Job Creation Programme.
What: A Flea in Her Ear
Where and when: Magnet Theatre from 24 to 27 June 2026
Tickets: Webtickets
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