Review of the production at the 2012 Witness Hilton Art
Festival by Caroline Smart
KickstArt’s latest production, Venus in Fur, premiered at The Witness Hilton Arts Festival last
weekend. Directed by Steven Stead on an excellent set designed by Greg King,
the play marks another fine milestone for this multi-award-winning company.
The play takes as its base, the novella Venus in Furs, by Leopold
van Sacher-Masoch which was published in 1870. Its central character is Wanda
von Dunajew, modelled after an emerging literary character of the time. This
manuscript tells of a man who is so infatuated with her that he asks to be her slave,
and encourages her to treat him in progressively more degrading ways.
Fast-track to present day: Writer-director Wes Bentley has
just finished an exhausting day interviewing actresses who have been
auditioning for the lead character of Wanda in his adaptation of von Sacher-Masoch’s novel.
His eagerly-awaited departure from the studio is shattered
when the door flies open and in bursts a volatile, straight-talking, pushy
actress called … Vanda! What follows is a fascinating process as the audition
takes place with the actress seeming to know more about the novel and the
people in it than he does. This is a compelling piece of writing and Janna
Ramos-Violante and Neil Coppen do full justice to it. Also a great pleasure to
see Neil Coppen back in an acting capacity.
I look forward to seeing this production at Seabrooke’s
Theatre next week as the play requires a more intimate space than the wide
Hilton College Theatre. One needs to come up close and personal with Venus in Fur to appreciate the actors’
performances. – Caroline Smart
Posts
