By Joel Applegate
VENUS IN FUR by David Ives Salt Lake Acting Company – SLAC – 10-20-13
The two actors in Venus in Fur at SLAC attack and embrace their four difficult roles with a surety that is amazing. The characters are fully defined, yet the transformations are clear and seamless.
Maybe it’s a reflection of my own narcissism, but I really like self-referential theatrical works. And I loved this one. I wasn’t just entertained. I was schooled.
This is not just an examination of sexual politics, or modern morality for that matter. There’s tradition here. A novel published in1870 called Venus in Furs by the Austrian author, Leopold von Sacher-Masoch, makes up the basis of this modern play by David Ives. And it’s an unnerving updating. Its brilliance is that we see characters from the novel as well as two modern sophisticates of irony tether their libidos and, perhaps more dangerously, their autonomy, to each other.
I can’t emphasize enough what an extraordinary piece of writing this is, a conclusion I reached without prompting, despite its Tony nomination in 2010 for Best Play. But how would I know how beautiful the writing is without seeing how beautifully it can be rendered? A play, as everyone knows, is not a script. But I’m not going to wax pedantic here. Simply this: In the hands of SLAC and director Tracy Callahan, all the elements combine into an experience that for me, constituted a master class in the theater. Marza Warsinske, as Vanda the actor, appears on her entrance fully charged. She employs a battery of weaponry that is, finally, unconquerable and indefatigable. Patrick Kintz as Tom the director/ adapter warily and ably parries her moves until we realize he is falling behind, his mask of superiority slipping as the nature of the seduction taking place becomes clearer.
What if I told you this is not about sex? I’d be partly right. It’s about power, and it’s about woman’s equality. From the original novel:
“She can only be his slave or his despot, but never his companion. This she can become only when she has the same rights as he and is his equal in education and work.” Wikipedia
Amazing for 1870, no?!
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At first, Vanda and Tom spar in erotically tinged posing, then come the jousts for position. She becomes so challenging that Tom, as a modern man, must sacrifice his political masculinity on Vanda’s masterfully constituted feminist alter. It was utterly invigorating watching Kintz “give it up” to Warsinske not just because she’d pinned him like a butterfly, but because – by that time – he wanted to.
I’ll remember this exhilarating production … forever. But you don’t have that long. There’s only another week for this play at SLAC – among their very best productions of the last four years. See it. If you’re an adult, you can handle it.
Box Office 801.363.7522
$23 – $38 depending on which performance. Some student tix available at $15
Last performances: Oct 26 – Nov 3rd, Wed, Thurs, Fri, Sat at 7:30 pm; Sundays at 1 pm and 6 pm.
Salt Lake Acting Company
168 West 500 North
Salt Lake City, Utah 84103
Box Office 801.363.7522
$23 – $38 depending on which performance. Some student tix available at $15
Last performances: Oct 26 – Nov 3rd, Wed, Thurs, Fri, Sat at 7:30 pm; Sundays at 1 pm and 6 pm.
Salt Lake Acting Company
168 West 500 North
|Salt Lake City, Utah 84103
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