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VENUS IN FUR Send This Review to a Friend
Come along to S and M territory, courtesy of playwright David Ives, who has written a cleverly intriguing sex comedy that could nevertheless gain by tightening. The fireworks on stage go on longer than the idea supports, and one could still arrive at the ultimate feminist statement with trimming. The subject matter is kinkier than the delivery, but “Venus in Fur” becomes the showcase for actress Nina Arianda, who gives a knockout of a performance that should be an enormous boost for her career. Co-star Wes Bentley is more subtle, but his is also a finely tuned performance that gains strength as the play progresses.
Bentley plays Thomas, a writer-director who is frustrated in trying to cast the play he has adapted from an 1870 novel, “Venus in Fur” by Leopold von Sacher-Masoch. He is about to leave his studio when in storms Arianda as Vanda, late for the audition and a jumble of nerves as she spews profanity and laments how nothing has been going right in her effort to forge a career. She pleads that Thomas give her a chance to read, although she seems totally at odds with what he is looking for in an actress.
To his astonishment, Thomas finds that she has memorized lines from the script that she wasn’t even supposed to have, and little by little he is impressed by how suited she may be to the role. The kinkiness starts not just from the play, but from what develops during the extended audition with Thomas reading the part of the male lead.
As Vanda takes on the dominant role in the play, she fuses it with her behavior toward Thomas, who in turn mixes the submissive role of the man in the play with submissiveness to Vanda. The role playing flits between the drama and their real-life attraction, and the sexual tension between them mounts. Vanda sees anti-women attitudes in the work being adapted, and explodes with hostility on this count, further blurring the line between the stage work and the rapidly developing relationship.
Even though the play is only 90 minutes, the latter part seems repetitious and a challenge for Walter Bobbie, who does an excellent job directing, to keep interest high. Fortunately, it is hard to take one’s eyes off Arianda. At the Classic Stage Company, 136 East 13th Street, $60-$65. Phone: 866-811-4111.
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