Venus in Fur at Attic Salt Theatre Company
When it’s done well, David Ives’ 2010 play Venus in Fur is a two-person tour de force. The Attic Salt production, directed by Artistic Director Jeff Catanese, takes that power to yet another level by staging the show in their blackbox space in Woodfin with the audience on two sides at the same level as the performers. Not only are we witnesses to the progressively intense goings-on, we’re part of the characters’ world. With two talented, charismatic actors facing off, sometimes mere inches away, it’s a theatrical experience not to be missed.
The play is set in an audition space that’s essentially identical to Attic Salt’s performance venue, which further enhances the sense of being right there with Thomas, a playwright, and Vanda, an actress vying for a role in his new play. The play within the play is also called Venus in Fur, adapted from the 1870 novella by German author Leopold van Sacher-Masoch — from whose name the word “masochism” is derived. As you might expect, Ives’ play is about seduction, power, and submission (among other things), and the dynamic between the initially flighty Vanda and the initially guarded Thomas careens through many variations — comic, profound, romantic, threatening — as the show progresses.
The play is a master-level challenge for its cast, and these actors hit every mark. Alex McDonald Villarreal embodies the frustrated writer-director Thomas from the get-go, condescending to read his own play opposite the uninvited and drastically tardy Vanda (Kate McGunagle), then gradually falling under her spell. As Thomas’s certainty crumbles little by little and morphs into… something else (no spoilers), McDonald Villareal transforms before our eyes from haughty artist to a man whose primal needs take him to the verge of a breakdown.
McGunagle’s own transformation is just as impressive. Early on, hers is a thoroughly entertaining comic performance, broad and funny and recognizable — the dizzy aspiring actress who overshares in an effort to charm. At the same time, she conveys that there’s much more to Vanda, who just happens to share her first name with the character she’s reading for. Like the two Vandas she’s playing, McGunagle is full of surprises and simmering passions, and she skillfully layers on her character’s surprising gifts — and her surprising store of useful items appearing from her tote bag. It’s a showcase of a role (the first stage Vanda, Nina Arianda, won a bevy of prizes), and McGunagle makes the most of it, never faltering. Even if you’ve seen Venus in Fur before (or Roman Polanski’s 2013 film version), McGunagle is a revelation, as well as being thoroughly entertaining.
Director Catanese keeps these two talented actors on their toes, with great pacing and blocking that takes advantage of the 180-degree audience point of view. The tone of the play evolves little by little, from the disarming comedy of the first third to the taut drama of the final section — but at the same time Catanese builds drama through the comedy and peppers the tension with humor. (His actors earn a lot a laughs with the repeated two-word line: “Is it?”) Catanese and the cast are also well served by costumer McKinney Gough, whose contributions escalate in unexpected ways as the show goes on.
Ives, the playwright, has said he was inspired to pursue his vocation after seeing Edward Albee’s A Delicate Balance as a teenager, and everything about the Attic Salt production of Venus in Fur lives up to that phrase, as well as to Albee’s standards of provocative, memorable, deeply human theater.
Venus in Fur runs through April 26 at Attic Salt Theatre Company. For tickets or more information, visit atticsalt.org.
Photo courtesy of Attic Salt Theatre Company.
