THEATER REVIEW
Venus in Fur
Playwright: David Ives At: Goodman Theatre, 170 N. Dearborn St. Tickets: 312-443-3800 or www.goodmantheatre.org; $25-$86. Runs through: April 13
The instant that the Goodman Theatre's regional premiere of Venus in Fur closes, it's likely that every scrappy Chicago storefront theater will be vying to get the rights to playwright David Ives' acclaimed Broadway comedy.
Venus in Fur not only has a sexy subject matter exploring both the origins and interpretations of sadomasochism ( very trendy in this age of Fifty Shades of Grey ), but productionwise it largely just needs a two-person cast and a single setting of a New York rehearsal studio.
Given its compact size, Venus in Fur seems like an odd choice for the Goodman Theatre's vast Albert Theatre. Its smaller Owen space would have been cozier.
That said, director Joanie Schultz uses all the grand Goodman production bells and whistles at her disposal to ensure that any subsequent Chicago Venus in Fur productions will forever be compared to her fine staging. Schultz is also smart with her casting, drawing from the New York and Chicago storefront theater talent pool to bring Venus in Fur to blazing life.
Venus in Fur is essentially a long audition sequence taken to sexy, role-playing extremes.
Thomas ( Rufus Collins ) is a playwright/director who is aggravated that he cannot find a smart young actress to star in his theatrical adaptation of the 19th-century novel Venus in Furs by Leopold von Sacher-Masoch ( whose name is where we get the term "masochism" ).
But in walks Vanda ( Chicago actress Amanda Drinkall, in her second Goodman appearance ), very late and scatterbrained, but determined to be seen for the role of a young woman who is coaxed into becoming a proto-dominatrix.
Drinkall is great as Vanda, both confirming Thomas' lowered expectations and then constantly defying them as she pushes the audition to uncomfortably darker and deeper places.
The power play between Collins and Drinkall certainly crackles throughout, and they both handle Ives' comic blending of theatrical reality and fantasy with aplomb.
Set designer Todd Rosenthal does a more than respectable job of filling out the Albert stage with a photo-realistic rundown rehearsal studio, while sound designer Mikhail Fiksel and lighting designer Keith Parham both heighten its drama by creating an all-persuasive aural and mood-setting atmosphere that ratchets up the sense of unease.
Costume designer Jenny Mannis also has a lot of fun with her mix of period costume add-ons and comic notions of sexy S&M gear. My only wish is that Vanda's final triumphant outfit could have been more over the top.
So even though its very likely that Venus in Fur will rear its head again repeatedly in Chicago storefront theaters, there are plenty of reasons to catch it first locally at the Goodman— especially if size matters to you.
