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Voyeurs de Venus
By Lydia R. Diamond
Directed by Russ Tutterow
At Chicago Dramatists
1105 W. Chicago Ave.
Chicago, IL
Call 312-633-0639, tickets $20 - $25
Thursdays thru Saturdays at 8 PM
Sundays at 3 PM
Running time 2 hrs, 30 min with intermission
Through April 15, 2006
Voyeurs de Venus an intelligent, stylish look at exploitation
Chicago Dramatists has for 27 years helped developed playwrights and their work with the talented Lydia R. Diamond is on display with Voyeurs de Venus. This outstanding world premiere is complex, yet smoothly flowing; intelligent without polemic with empathetic, fully rounded characters. Playwright Lydia R. Diamond has her say about many topics without losing focus on her main theme. “The play is about exploitation in all forms, up to and including the exploitation of the self,” says director Russ Tutterow.
Voyeurs de Venus weaves three stories into a seamless, flowing drama that quickly hooks us and keeps us fully engaged. A contemporary PhD social anthropologist, Sara Washington (Tania Richard), is commissioned to write a book about Saartjie Baartman (Penelope Walker), an African woman who was taken from her village in 1810 and displayed in the streets and medical schools in Paris. She was derogatorily named “The Hottentot Venus” due to her voluptuousness rear end.
Sara struggles and has haunting dreams about finding the truth in telling Saartjie’s story. These dream sequences were effectively staged with traditional African dance and sexually charged roll playing. The weaving of Sara’s dreams, her struggle with herself and her publisher to find Saartjie’s voice while Sara fights her own ethical battles to define the line between personal ambition, historical truth and racial exploitation are examined. Will her book finally free the Venus or continue her exploitation?
Diamond marvelously flashes back so we see how Saartjie was exploited first by the Dutch family, then the Englishman Dunlap (Ron Quade) and finally by the dangerous Frenchman George Cuvier (Michael Joseph Mitchell).
We move smoothly from contemporary scenes where Sara struggles to find Venus’ essence with the loving, patient support of James (Christopher Cordon), her husband. Frequent interaction with Booker (Alfred C. Kemp), her editor, becomes a sexual romp as well. Sara and Saartjie speak in imaginary communication that molds each.
The flashback scenes reveal the stunning degradation Saartjie suffered due to her trustworthiness. We see that she is extremely intelligent (she spoke four languages) and understood what was happening to her. She retreated into alcohol to numb her pain. Penelope Walker as Saartjie and Tania Richard as Sara offer sharp, nuanced and believable performances while Michael Joseph Mitchell’s creepy Cuvier was telling. Alfred C. Kemp’s Booker was commanding and truthful while Cameron Feagin’s Millicent was movingly real.
Diamond frankly examines exploitation that has a strong sexual charge to it as we see the perversion that the obsessed “father of modern anatomy,” Cuvier literally gets off on his bloody dissections of animals. The connection of science, obsession and sex are deep taboos that Diamond exposes. The ultimate perversion occurs when Cuvier sees Saartjie as a species, the link between animals and humans.
The play’s structure works nicely as it moves through the storylines swiftly and coherently. We empathize with Sara and Saartjie and we see Booker’s modern African-American survival techniques at play as he attempts to point out to Sara the realities of success in 21st Century America.
This intellectually stimulating play is rich in ideas, perhaps containing a few too many. I’d advise cutting the monologues about the gentrification of the neighborhood (Wicker Park?) and the one about Lake Shore Drive since they are irrelevant to the story despite being beautifully written. I’d also trim the last dream sequence and cut one of the bedroom scenes with Booker since act two starts to drag as it appears to become a tad repetitive. Sometimes less is more.
In summary, Voyeurs de Venus is a compelling, brilliant play rich in powerful themes that tells an important story. This is a complex drama with sophisticated staging that seamlessly weaves several stories in a refreshingly new take on the dehumanizing effects of exploitation that is tastefully presented. Lydia R. Diamond is a marvelous writer and a gem of a dramatist.
Highly Recommended
Tom Williams
Tom99@chicagocritic.com for comments
Talk Theatre in Chicago podcast
Date Reviewed March 17, 2006
Jeff Recommended
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