The world premiere of The Flea by James Fritz runs from 11 October to 18 November at The Yard Theatre. The play focuses on crisis, class, cover-ups, and the crown in a retelling of the Cleveland Street scandal of 1889.
The story is a largely forgotten episode in London’s LGBTQ+ history. The Cleveland Street scandal rocked the nation when police discovered a homosexual male brothel in Fitzrovia. At the time, gay male sex was illegal in Britain, and the brothel’s clients faced prosecution and social rejection if discovered.
The Flea trailer is here — a story of a flea, a horse, a mother, a lord and a queen. A show about class, cover-ups and the crown. A portrait of an England that was once plunged into crisis.
(Watch until the end for a treat).
The government was accused of covering up aspects of the story to protect the names of aristocrats and other prominent patrons. There were rumours that Prince Albert Victor, Queen Victoria’s grandson and second-in-line to the British throne, had visited. The police acquired testimonies that Lord Arthur Somerset, an equerry to the Prince of Wales, was a patron. Still, he and the brothel keeper, Charles Hammond, fled abroad before a prosecution could be brought.
Although no clients were ever prosecuted, the male prostitutes, who also worked as telegraph messenger boys for the General Post Office, could not rely on the same protection network as their upper-class patrons. In acts that echo throughout the ages, they were tried by public opinion, humiliated in the press and sentenced to jail.
“JAMES FRITZ IS SUCH AN EXCITING PLAYWRIGHT. IT MARKS A RETURN TO DIRECTING FOR JAY MILLER, WHOSE PRODUCTIONS OFTEN FEEL BOTH DELICATE YET DARING.”
Miriam Gillinson, The Guardian
Directed by The Yard’s Founder and Artistic Director, Jay Miller, and the cast includes Scott Karim, Connor Finch, Norah Lopez Holden, Séamus McLean Ross and Sonny Poon Tip.
Tickets to The Flea: https://theyardtheatre.co.uk/theflea/
The Flea runs from 11 October – 18 November 2023 at The Yard Theatre, Unit 2a Queens Yard, London E9 5EN, United Kingdom.
