One Flea Spare presented by Eclipse Theatre Company at The Greenhouse Theater Center

Chicago Sun Times - Recommended

"...Wallace’s play unquestionably captures a pervasive sense of sickness. But it is more a matter of moral rot than the plague that is her subject here. And it is people, not fleas, that carry those sorts of germs."

Chicago Reader - Recommended

"...Wallace's class-conscious tale has a schematic quality that Anish Jethmalani's handsome staging for Eclipse Theatre doesn't entirely overcome, but the cast is generally excellent--particularly Brian Parry as a strutting Snelgrave and Susan Monts-Bologna as his sexually and emotionally repressed spouse. Kevin Hagan's elegantly spare set and lighting designs subtly evoke the physical isolation and deprivation threaded throughout the story."

Centerstage - Somewhat Recommended

"...Like the parlor the characters are confined to, the play is too stifling to let us fully in, but the glimpses we get of both kindness and inhumanity make it worth a look."

Time Out Chicago - Recommended

"...Though Wallace’s indulgence in poetic language can sap the play of forward motion, Jethmalani’s staging feels appropriately feverish and in flux. Each cast member contributes a satisfactory performance, but Monts-Bologna, as Darcy, walks away with the whole thing. Tasked with playing a character driven primarily by sexual longing, Monts-Bologna avoids turning Darcy into a horny old broad, conveying instead a desperate, lifelong ache to connect to another human being. She’s mesmerizing."

ChicagoCritic - Recommended

"...Wallace’s poetic language is nicely enunciated by this fine cast. Young Elizabeth Stenholt shows promise as an actor. Brian Parry and J. P. Pierson gave yeoman performances. Susan Monts Bologna’s subtle performance powerfully emerged as the strongest. There is humor, intensity and truth in One Flea Spare. For something different, see this show."

Chicago Stage and Screen - Highly Recommended

"...Parry’s cluelessly entitled Snelgrave embodies all the pride that justifies a fall, while Bologna’s more nuanced and needy Darcy hews to Wallace’s feminist depiction of a much wronged wife.  Finally, Bloomfield exudes opportunism during a plague, as Mother Courage did in war."

Chicago Theater Beat - Recommended

"...Director Anish Jethmalani is able to help keep the show grounded in places where Wallace doesn’t, knowing not to overwhelm the tightly packed text. Her straightforward and precise staging provides clarity to themes that could easily otherwise be murky. The cast does likewise. This small ensemble is exceptional, especially Brian Parry as the proud, aging, and sometimes oafish house master. Susan Monts-Bologna achieves sympathy without victimhood as his oppressed wife, and JP Pierson conveys a sense of maturity that’s found somewhere in between a young man’s idealism and an adult’s surrender to reality."