Thomas Novachek (Adam Booth), contemporary New York playwright, has adapted Leopold von Sacher-Masoch’s 1870 novel for the stage. As director for the initial production of Venus in Fur, Thomas is overseeing the casting. At the end of a long and disappointing audition day, his phone call to his fiancé is interrupted by the late arrival of Vanda Jordan (Felicity McKay), a hopeful actress whose enthusiasm is marked by every trait Thomas bewails as unattractively prevalent in modern women. To his amazement, on a trial read through the first scene, Vanda brings her namesake character to elegant, refined life. The reading progresses, with lines becoming blurred between director and actor, subverting Thomas’s hopes of manipulating a pliable young actor in fulfilment of his own fantasies, but then the final moment of revelation recasts the entire proceedings in a new, yet ancient, light.
Such a complex, convoluted device within the play is taxing on actors and audience alike. The audience’s task is made slightly easier by the confident skills of McKay, who seizes the stage and fluently moves between her parts. A recent graduate from WAAPA, her grasp of physical movement, accent, comic timing and the ineffable art of attracting the eye are all brilliant. Booth play two similar roles, both repressed, highly intellectual, supercilious and self-oblivious. While the machinations of the actress’ various parts serve to highlight these resemblances, Booth manages to play them in parallel, until the point where all lines of personal identity become blurred within the play.
Director Lawrie Cullen-Tait explores playwright David Ives’ various layers of topic and meaning, allows her actors to inhabit their richly complex parts and then has enough trust in the audience to let us follow without overly signposting the various parts of the narrative. In return, audience members need to bring their A-games to fully appreciate each level of Venus in Fur.
Joe Lui’s lighting design packs the ceiling above the small performance area. The lighting cues are worked into the dialogue and the abrupt change of dramatic pace, scope and focus at the end is emphasised by strongly coloured light. Ambient sound design adds to the progression of events, with periodic claps of thunder and an insistent mobile ringtone as Thomas’ fiancée keeps calling. As with the lighting, the finale allows the acoustic atmosphere to shift and become bombastic with the sting in the play’s tail.
Patrick Howe’s set design creates a cramped, intense space within a vast black box venue, delivering the low-rent casting room in a dilapidated building. Acting flair brings to life various scenes from the play within the play, before McKay steps outside the tightly constructed reality in the closing moments, revealing the layers of illusion from the space around the stage.
An intriguing start to the year from Black Swan State Theatre Company, an exciting debut performance from Felicity McKay and an exhilarating experience for all at the start of the FringeWorld season.
Rating: 4 out of 5stars
Venus in Fur
Studio Underground, State Theatre Centre of Western Australia
Part of FringeWorld 2015
By David Ives
Director & Costume Designer: Lawrie Cullen-Tait
Set Designer: Patrick Howe
Lighting Designer: Joe Lui
Sound Designer: Brett Smith
Fight Director: Andy Fraser
Voice Coach: Julia Moody
Stage Manager: Claire Blagaich
Performed by Adam Booth and Felicity McKay
15 January – 8 February 2015
