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A CurtainUp Review
Venus in Fur
By Elyse Sommer
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Basically, he's got this beat-me-whip-me kink and he wants to see if she's up for it.
He's auditioning her.— Vanda, commenting on the characters in the play Thomas has adapted from Ritter Leopold Sacher-Masoch 1870 novella about an aristocrat for whom true love calls for denial of self. Vanda wryly sums up the long term effect of a childhood whipping by a powerful aunt with So, actually, this play is, like, all about child abuse.
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Cast:
(Photo credit: Joan Marcus) |
Most of all, a look at Venus In Furs the novella, will make you more than ever appreciate David Ives' skills as a witty adapter who manages to be faithful to his inspirational source and yet fresh and original enough to warrant a by-line as playwright. Ives' steamy two-hander, Venus in Fur, was one of the Classic Stage's biggest ever hits, turned Nina Arianda into a star (landing her the role of Bllie Dawn in the revival of Born Yesterday and has now transferred to MTC's beautiful Samuel J. Friedman Theatre.
While Ives started out with the intention of a straightforward page-to-stage translation within the novella's time frame, his final product fast forwarded the late 19th century's story to the present, and gave it an entirely new framework. Instead of exploring the sex and power dynamics through a series of conversations as the book does, he concocted a backstage story in which the actors (Nna Arianda and Hugh Dancy) play both the fictional characters, Dunayev and Kushemsky, as well as the adapter/director Thomas and an auditioning actress named Vanda. Since Vanda arrives so late that everyone except Thomas is gone, she manages to get him to stay and do the reading with her. This neatly eliminates the need for other actors on stage and also cleverly and often hilariously establishes the parallels in the interplay of sex and power now as then.
Of course the reason being late doesn't prevent Vanda from getting her chance to unpack the big shopping bag filled with costumes she's brought for her audition is that the character Ives as created and the actress playing her is an irresistible force of nature. Thomas can no more than the audience resist being blown away by Nina Arianda's bedazzling ditziness, sensualiiy and powerful control and timing — as well as her riveting physicality. Whether in period costume or trendy mini-skirt, she looks ravishing in Anita Yavich's witty costume.s
Walter Bobbie, who also directed Ives' terrific take on Moliere's School for Lies , is again on board to keep the intrigue of the impromptu audition and the play being auditioned moving along at a zippy pace. So are the designers. John Lee Beatty's plain but finely detailed rehearsal studio where the interaction between the two actors and their four characters becomes increasingly and entertainingly a blur between fantasy and reality fits comfortably, if a tad less intimately, into the larger Broadway venue's space.
The biggest change in the Broadway production is that Hugh Dancy is now Nina's sparring partner. While she remains the star attraction, he's a more than worthy partner, especially when the gap between his two characters becomes narrower and and more slippery.
Arianda's pumped-up performance never slackens. The scenario shifts smoothly into the more sinister territory where the question of who's in charge will be settled — or, as the play puts it, who will be the anvil and who will be the hammer. The table turning of master-slave roles does eventually feel like a few too many turns. David Ives' soluton for dealing with the questions raised by Vanda's over-preparedness for the audition lends a fun if somewhat too pat twist to the end. These minor quibbles notwithstanding, there's enough enjoyable decadence flavoured with a touch of darkness to make this the theatrical equivalent of digging into a sampler of Godiva chocolates.
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Venus in Fur Director: Walter Bobbie Written by David Ives Cast: Nina Arianda and Hugh Dancy Scenic Design: John Lee Beatty Costume design: Anita Yavich Lighting design: Peter Kaczorowski Sound design: Acme Sound Partners Fight direction: Thomas Schall Stage Manager: Buzz Cohen Running Time: 90 minutes MTC's Samuel J. Friedman Theatre 261 W. 47th St.212-239-6200 From 10/13/11; opening 11/08/11; closing 12/18/11-- but reopening at the Lyceum from 2/07/12 to 6/17/12 Tickets: $57 – $121. Reviewed by Elyse Sommer at November 3rd press preview |
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