Venus NYC Reviews and Tickets
Show-Score Member Reviews (101)
See it if You enjoy smart writing, period dramas, stories about strong females, racial tension.
Don't see it if You have a strong aversion to women being mistreated.
See it if you want to see one of Suzan-Lori Parks best plays. Also, a great central performance by Zainab Jah. Innovative staging.
Don't see it if you do not like avant-garde theatre or if you need to be spoon-fed ideas.
See it if Suzan-Lori Parks beautifully written,socially conscious,historically based play about a woman brought to London to appear in a freak show.
Don't see it if If you are interested in light subjects.
See it if You like Suzan-Lori Sparks and if you do, you know what time her pieces take. Very dark vaudevillian, exaggerated, eccentric, sad--- at once
Don't see it if Your anti historical pieces, which can make you feel uncomfortable. Racial topics. Cussing. It can be slow, but, picked up. Dark humor
See it if you like dramas that are based on true events or stories about unconventional subjects.
Don't see it if you have a difficult time sitting through stories about exploitation and disturbing themes. Read more
See it if You're interested in historical dramas that use a variety of theatrical devices to tell a story.
Don't see it if You dislike plays that are based on true stories, but that get a bit loose with the truth to get a point across.
See it if you want to understand the long relationship between Europeans and Africans and how they viewed them. It can be unsettling.
Don't see it if you still hold out-of-date views of what is right an what is wrong. Or for that matter you want a show with a nice ending.
See it if want to challenge yourself to imagine the life of a woman exhibited like a circus act
Don't see it if you are not interested in fictional recreations
Critic Reviews (29)
"The play does a good job of bringing Saartjie's story to the fore. But over the course of the evening, things become less coherent...'Venus' has much of significance to say about the treatment of women and blacks. But it is a challenging play to pull off without losing its focus, and director deBessonet has not been entirely successful...There is an ironic tone to much of the proceedings, but the clashing styles challenge our ability to immerse ourselves in Saartjie's all-too-human story."
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"A visually stunning and finely cast new production...'Venus,' despite the detours from straightforward storytelling and its grotesque chorus, is not all that hard to follow. However, it's painfully hard to watch...This is a study of horrendous exploitation...Jah is magnificently heartbreaking...For all its colorful staging and fine acting, 'Venus' can't quite escape coming off as a rather obvious history lesson, but one, especially Parks' many fans, won't want to miss."
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“The problem at the heart of ‘Venus’ is that its author Suzan-Lori Parks does not, fundamentally, trust the strength of her central figure, Miss Saartje Baartman (aka the Venus Hottentot). In her bizarrely overwritten play, the inherent emotional power of this figure goes missing, as if Parks is purposely avoiding an ‘Elephant Man’ redux by showing off every theatrical gimmick in her playwriting arsenal.”
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"Jah's portrayal of Baartman is luminous. Jah has delicately crafted a sympathetic character, making it very painful to watch her fragile innocence shattered again and again...Parks has a deft touch for writing prose which flows with lyrical wit...In this dazzling production, Parks and deBessonet transform the stage into the Georgian era, boldly taking hold of the historical narrative and refusing to cede it back, giving Baartman’s life the perspective she richly deserves."
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"Lear deBessonet directs this revival of Parks’s 1996 play with flair and confidence, capitalizing on its numerous styles including Brechtian storytelling, vaudeville, and surreal absurdism...'Venus' is a unique creation by a unique playwright with an urgent voice...In 'Venus,' standards of beauty, the dignity of the female form, and a woman’s control over her body are additional themes that Parks explores with fearlessness and determination."
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"Makes you sit up and pay attention–even if you don’t want to. Now, the only reason you would not want to pay attention is that this is a sad, even horrific, story of how far a civilized society can go to disrupt what they do not understand...This is a mighty cast who play so many characters it makes your head spin. Each performance is finely tuned, and the direction of Lear DeBessonet brings the entire production to full-throttled life."
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"Jah gives a spectacularly humanistic portrayal of a woman who is passed from man to woman to man as an object of spectacle, desire, and, ultimately, science...Parks has a mastery of language, her lines bursting with poetry. 'Venus' has dark and difficult subject matter that Parks treats with utmost humanity, and the beauty of the language does much to counterbalance the brutality of The Venus’ life."
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"Director deBessonet's striking revival of 'Venus,' which is dominated by a brilliant performance by Jah...It makes us look with fresh eyes and a clear mind at such contemporary issues as racism and gender objectification...Among the supporting cast, only the veteran actress Danson makes any real impact....One can leave the theater arguing just how much Baartman is truly a victim or a semi-willing party to her own demise. It’s a question without easy answers, but one worth asking."
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