Venus in Fur at South Coast Repertory

Venus in Fur

South Coast Repertory
655 Town Center Drive Costa Mesa

Auditions are over for the day, and Thomas still hasn't found the perfect actress for his adaptation of a 19th century erotic novel. Then, Vanda stumbles into the bare rehearsal studio, soaking wet and hours late. Before he can stop her, she strips down to saucy lingerie, wiggles into a white period dress, and mysteriously—hilariously—becomes the elusive leading lady. But the battle for sexual dominance that follows is not limited to the script in what The New York Times called "90 minutes of good, kinky fun." Recommendation: For adults. Sexual situations and language.

Thru - Oct 26, 2014

Price: $22

Stage: Julianne Argyros Stage

Show Type: Comedy

Box Office: 714-708-5555

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Venus in Fur Reviews

Average Rating based on 7 reviews

Highly Recommended
Recommended
Somewhat Recommended
Not Recommended

LA Weekly - Recommended

"...When he questions her choice to arrive in a leather collar, de rigueur for S&M roleplay, she shrugs it off as a leftover item from her days as a prostitute - "Just kidding," she shoots back to the gobsmacked Thomas. But when she is kidding, or playing, about anything at all, becomes increasingly difficult for either Thomas or for the audience to determine. And these slippery edges between cursing New York City street kid and imperious Austro-Hungarian dominatrix, which Paige traverses so effortlessly and convincingly under Casey Stangl's direction, are this production's centerpiece. Vanda is the smart woman who plays dumb, the power broker who plays powerless, the coy femme fatale who burns with a seething desire for revenge. She knows Thomas, his peccadillos - and those of his fiancée - so well that the question of who is she is enough to sustain this production."

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- Steven Leigh Morris

LA Splash - Recommended

"...Regardless, SCR's production is still worth seeing, especially to see its stars. The electrifying performances by Graham Hamilton and Jaimi Paige save the play from its own defects."

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- Peter A. Balaskas

Stage Scene LA - Recommended

"...Provocative, daring, audacious, intriguing, and sexy as all get-out, David Ives' Venus In Fur has at long last made it to L.A.-adjacent Costa Mesa following dozens of regional productions, giving its arrival at South Coast Rep bona fide event status. That director Casey Stangl and stars Jaimi Paige and Graham Hamilton deliver the goods … and then some, makes a drive down to Orange County an absolute must for any theater lover worth his or her salt."

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- Steven Stanley

OC Register - Recommended

"...But it's the psychosexual maelstrom roiling under the surface that transforms Ives' comedy into a wild, spellbinding carnival ride, uninterrupted by an intermission in director Casey Stangl's taut and finely calibrated production."

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- Paul Hodgins

Grigware Blogspot - Recommended

"...Now onstage at SCR, Casey Stangl directs two first-rate actors in Ives' thoroughly engrossing, unpredictable story of degradation."

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- Don Grigware

OC Weekly - Recommended

"...Because while David Ives' 2011 play is, on the most obvious level, about kink and sex and gender politics and class and power and all that shit that seems so important until you're actually fucking, the play is about something far more titillating-and far more fascinating-than sex and all the politics that goes with it. So, contrary to what you may have read, Venus In Fur is less an edgy, naughty sex comedy than it is a revenge play that leaps over the blood and gore of Jacobean tragedy and draws its source from the lusty, vain group of perverted sociopaths atop Mount Olympus in the stories of ancient Greece."

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- Joel Beers

Showmag - Recommended

"...Casey Stangl has directed the production with an eye to enhancing the mystery and keeping the audience on the edge of its seats. She is greatly helped by protean atmosphere conjured by Keith Mitchell's sets, Elizabeth Harper's lighting, and Jeff Polunas' sound. David Kay Mickelsen's witty costumes provide all that is needed without tipping his hand. Any two-hander rises or falls on the strengths of the actors, and both Hamilton and Paige have the skill and charisma to carry it off."

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- Michael Van Duzer

Venus in Fur at South Coast Repertory

Venus in Fur

Venus in Fur Reviews

LA Weekly - Recommended

LA Splash - Recommended

Stage Scene LA - Recommended

OC Register - Recommended

Grigware Blogspot - Recommended

OC Weekly - Recommended

Showmag - Recommended

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