By Laura Kennelly
This delicious version of David Ives’ Venus in Fur gives the actors plenty of space to play naughty. The CPT Second Stage at PlayhouseSquare features a runway construction for this show directed by Laura Kepley. This intimate setting allowed much more dialogue to be heard than the New York production did and opening night I realized that I’d missed a few choice lines the first time I saw this stunning work on Broadway.
In Cleveland both actors in the two-person cast seemed evenly matched. With aspiring actress Vanda (Vanessa Wasche) and director/playwright Thomas (Michael Brusasco) it seemed less the advertised “Venus vs. Mars battle of the sexes” and more a battle between pride and prejudice (hello, Jane Austen). Director Thomas thinks little of dumb actresses (he thinks they are all dumb) and lets us know that right away as he complains via a telephone diatribe to his girl friend. When Vanda arrives late for her audition on this stormy night we soon learn that she has more than a few surprises stored in her purse. Poetic justice ensues.
What’s fun about this play within a play is the way it segues from satirizing the men and women who make it run to taking critical looks at the theatrical process itself. Wasche’s gorgeous Vanda could have been a bit more of a ditz in the beginning, but by play’s end her powerful transformation seems convincing and delightfully unsettling. Brusasco’s Thomas easily moves from bombastic bossy director/writer to the sensitive little boy seeking approval that he had been hiding underneath his masterful facade.
What’s this writer’s takeaway opinion? A thoroughly witty and naughty look (don’t take the teens lest they be embarrassed that their parents think it is funny) at directors and other minor gods. Other conclusions? Assumptions can be dangerous and don’t diss the Greek gods, especially the goddess of love.
[Photo: Roger Mastroianni]
The production’s run has been extended through November 30th. For tickets or information go to http://clevelandplayhouse.com.
Laura Kennelly is a freelance arts journalist, a member of the Music Critics Association of North America, and an associate editor of BACH, a scholarly journal devoted to J. S. Bach and his circle.
Listening to and learning more about music has been a life-long passion. She knows there’s no better place to do that than the Cleveland area.
Cleveland, OH 44115