Company O, an independent classic and contemporary theatre company based in Perth have brought David Ives’ play ‘Venus in Fur’ to FRINGE WORLD.

The storyline is complicated but essentially the play is about a theatre director, Thomas, looking to cast the role of Vanda in his play called ‘Venus in Fur’, who is visited at the end of a long day of fruitless auditioning by a maverick woman, coincidentally also called Vanda, who proceeds to talk herself into an audition. Complexity is added because Thomas’ play ‘Venus in Fur’ is based on Leopold von Sacher-Masoch’s late nineteenth-century novella ‘Venus in Furs’, about a man dreaming of speaking to Roman Goddess Venus while she wears furs, and of course Sacher-Masoch is the fellow from whose name we got the word ‘masochist’.

The play is most definitely from the cultured end of the FRINGE WORLD palette. This isn’t the show to attend if you are looking for something to pleasantly wash over you but rather it is a performance that demands your attention to follow the action on more than just a superficial level. I loved the fact that you really had to think about the deeper meaning of the words and their delivery.

There are some big issues in there covering male-female conflict, sexuality, feminism and role-playing in relationships.

The two actors – Vanda played by Codey Findlay and Thomas played by Andrew O’Connell, who also directs, are excellent, imbuing their characters with appropriate confidence (Vanda) and diffidence (Thomas) while presenting the psychological manoeuvring between themselves impeccably.

This is a sexy fun play but lest there be any doubt about the contemporary relevance then the words from Sacher-Masoch’s book, quoted in the play, spell it out:

Women can only be a man’s “slave or his despot but never his companion. This she can become only when she has the same rights as he and is his equal in education and work.”

If you are looking for cutting-edge thought-provoking contemporary theatre at its best, then get along to Mossenson Galleries next weekend. You won’t be disappointed.