While it’s best known for its street parade, the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras is actually a festival comprising more than 80 separate events, including theatre performances, art exhibitions, parties and concerts. The New Theatre is a regular contributor to the annual festival, this year staging The Flea in association with Mardi Gras.
Each year, Mardi Gras has a theme, with the 2025 theme being ‘Free to Be’. The topic of freedom (or lack of freedom) reverberates throughout The Flea, which is based on real life events and set at a time and place when male homosexuality was illegal.
Said time and place was London in 1889, when a gay male brothel was discovered by the police, in what became known as the Cleveland Street Scandal. But this wasn’t any old gay brothel. Located at 19 Cleveland Street, Fitzrovia, it was frequented by the well-to-do: wealthy businessman, aristocrats, perhaps even royalty.
In The Flea, playwright James Fritz explores themes of justice and morality – and the cost of unjustly punishing people for victimless ‘crimes’ such as homosexuality.
The play revolves around Charlie Swinscow (played by Samuel Ireland), a young telegraph messenger boy, who gets caught with 14 shillings in his pocket – a sum impossible for him to earn on his paltry wage. The cash, it turns out, is payment for his assignations with men at 19 Cleveland Street.
This production is particularly concerned with consequences and chains of events. In the early scenes of The Flea, the small, eponymous insect bites a rat, the itchy rat then spooks a horse, the horse kicks and kills a man (Swinscow’s father) and so the chain reaction goes.
Similarly, we see how society forces financially insecure Charlie Swinscow into sex work, this line of work leads to trouble with the law, the merciless law comes down on the boy and makes a criminal of him, changing the course of his life and all but destroying his relationship with his mother (Sofie Divall).
Directed by Patrick Kennedy, this production successfully portrays the price to be paid – by both individuals and society – when inherent characteristics such as sexuality are met with repression and discrimination.
It also successfully brings to life atmosphere of Victorian-era Britain, through Kennedy’s set and the acting chops of the hard-working cast.
Less successful are the audiovisual components, which see various pre-recorded scenes projected onto four small television screens and musical interludes connecting the play’s scenes.
For such theatrical devices to enhance a production, they need to run like precision clockwork. Here, these features are slightly clunky and feel more like bumps in the narrative than enhancements.
The Flea also includes ‘flash forwards’ from the Victorian era to gay clubs where late ’80s and early ’90s club music plays over the speakers. The purpose of these interludes is not apparent to this reviewer. Perhaps they are meant to serve as a bridge between the Victorian era and the gay world of today – but then, the late ’80s and early ’90s aren’t exactly contemporaneous with 2025. Again, like the audiovisual components, these moments feel like interruptions to the story arc.
Read: Theatre review: Macbeth, Royal Botanic Gardens
Thes criticisms aside, The Flea is a solid, thought-provoking play and a worthy addition to the cultural offerings of the 2025 Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras.
The Flea by James Fritz
New Theatre, Newtown NSW
Director and Designer: Patrick Kennedy
Assistant Director: Luke Visentin
Lighting Designer: Topaz Marlay-Cole
Associate Set Designer: Tom Bannerman
Stage Manager: Hermione Bathurst
Assistant Stage Managers: Lara Kyriazis, Harry Peters
LX/SX Operator: Nathaniel Pernecita
Cast: James Collins, Sofie Divall, Samuel Ireland, Jack Elliot Mitchell, Mark Salvestro
Tickets: $20-$37
The Flea will be performed until 8 March 2025.
