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preview Horse, burning In 1999 Kentucky playwright Naomi Wallace won a MacArthur Foundation Fellowship, more commonly known as a MacArthur genius award. The citation noted her unique strengths as a writer and her skills In presenting a "dramatic investigation of material not often represented on stage." Wallace's take on life is grim. At the same time, it is eerily poetic. In One Flea Spare, which plays at Presentation House in November, Darcy Snelgrave remembers a blaze in a stable, and the death of a dappled mare her father had given her: "Her mane was on fire. She kept leaping and rearing to shake it off but she couldn't shake it off. The mare ran in circles around the garden. Faster and faster she went, the fire eating its way into her coat. Her coat was wet, streaming with sweat, but it didn't stop the flames from spreading out across her flanks. A horse on fire. In full gallop. It was almost. Beautiful." It's London, 1665, the plague year. Darcy (who was burned herself) is locked in a house with her husband, guaranteed after the deaths of their servants. They are expecting to get out soon. Then two strangers mysteriously appear, a sailor and a young girl. Boredom and terror alternate. All four start to play games of domination and submission, Interrupted only by the town crier with updates on the contagion raging all around them. "One Flea Spare deals with the basest elements of human nature in the midst of catastrophe," says Leon Potter, the production's director. "It was originally inspired by the L.A. riots, and for this reason, I feel that It carries more weight than it ever did." Naomi Wallace: eerily poetic One Flea Spare runs from November 15 to December 1. For more information call the Presentation House box office, 604-990-3474. CONTINUING + NETWORKED EDUCATION PROGRAMS Discover Courses the unlimited in art and design, V v possibilities Certificate Programs Career Development VISUAL ARTS MEDIA ARTS Continuing + Networked Education Emily Can Institute of Art + 1399 J o h n s t o n S t r e e t Vancouver, B C V 6 H 3R9 November | December Design