Venus NYC Reviews and Tickets
Show-Score Member Reviews (101)
See it if you are open to non-linear play with many different theatrical styles, depicting a horrifying instance of racism and slavery; unique.
Don't see it if you are expecting a linear, happy show with little to say, a mere entertainment. This is not it. Depictions of cruel treatment throughout Read more
See it if You like plays that do interesting things with language and time, mix theater from different traditions, hear a story that's not been heard.
Don't see it if You like straight forward, linear pieces, or only want to see things that make you laugh. Read more
See it if You'd like a little history, a well crafted powerful story, & yet another instance of how the "cultured" treat the "other."
Don't see it if You can't tolerate a slow developing plot, with a play within a play which is not immediately clear, or don't want cultural comment.
See it if you're intrigued by a true story of a 19th century African woman exploited by a white society for her physicality.
Don't see it if you don't want to be made uncomfortable.
See it if you like oddball, non-linear, well done theater
Don't see it if you can't follow a jump around plot, you are uncomfortable with freakshow performers
See it if you are a fan of Suzan-Lori Parks or like theater that is about issues that affect our human condition. Thought-provoking and solidly acted.
Don't see it if you don't like plays that explore the politics of race. It is highly stylized so it's perhaps not the choice for those who like naturalism.
See it if Beautifully staged retelling of Hottentot Venus focusing on strength, resilience, complicity filtered through a stylized theatrical lens
Don't see it if U want straight line narrative and don't want difficult themes of colonialism, racism, body shaming/beauty ideals and abuse of black bodies
See it if Parks' drama perhaps more timely today then when written. deBessonet's stylized production both frightens & alienates Jab's Venus poignant
Don't see it if Brechtian production disallows much sympathy & Parks' narrative structure confusing at times but Jab's complex performance pulls us along
Critic Reviews (29)
“'Venus'…is overlong…and frequently lifeless. Much of it is juvenile and lacking in wit, its structure as misshapen as the woman whose story it dramatizes…Fortunately, it gets a finely nuanced performance from Jah, who brings charm and intelligence to playing this unusual, abused, enslaved, yet determined woman…The talented DeBessonet's effortful production can do little to blanket the play's weaknesses…At times it feels that someone's sucked the music out of what should have been a musical.”
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“Jah’s performance is the best thing about deBessonet’s highly stylized, colorfully designed revival…If it’s a circus that’s their model, it’s one with many sideshows. Parks does not wish to be restricted to any one style or focus…While the principal cast and the ensemble all do fine work, it is Jah’s performance that carries the show. She provides a focus otherwise lacking. She embodies a character whose complexity makes her more interesting than just a victim or a symbol of oppression.”
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"A vivid, visually striking revival by the young director Lear deBessonet. As tragic as the tale is, resilience, humor and love run through the show...Using extreme stylization, Parks creates a distance from the story’s fundamental sadness, and the show never devolves into a treaty on racism and colonialism...Besides Jah, who imbues her character with a sensitive balance of pathos and dignity, the production benefits from an excellent ensemble."
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"Like most racially charged plays, a major fact has been bastardized...The play is highly poetic, theatrical with a bleeding of song. The script skips around in time so, in a way, things are never fully coherent and seem dreamlike, well, more of a nightmare. Zainab Jah is prolific as Venus. She shows us her Venus layer by layer, as she is stripped and pawed...Lear deBessonet's staging is interesting as she adds a macabre circus-like staging to jar us out of complacency."
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"A visually beautiful and etherial production...You see van Gogh’s work in a way you have never seen it before...Hudson plays van Gogh and though he has terrific facial expressions and looks like van Gogh, his vocals are off-putting...Wolf’s script becomes monotonous if not given a certain resonance...Makes you appreciate art not being recognized despite being a genius and the pain of mental illness. I left the theatre wanting to know more and feeling life is but a starry night."
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"Viewed today, with the author’s intentions presumably more intact than they were 20 years ago, 'Venus' is revealed as an intriguing and arresting work...The playwright’s incisive, probing imagination matched with clearly inborn theatricality is very much in evidence...Parks tells her story in grand style, with four principals plus a very busy ensemble...Jah is altogether wonderful as Venus...DeBessonet does a masterful job, building a colorful and wild sideshow around the star attraction."
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“At the core is Zainab Jah in the title role, giving a superb, ultimately affecting performance…The more intimate portion of the play provides the strongest emotional connection for an audience, as opposed to the spectacle and overview that captures attention but detracts from the real drama involving a life at stake…All of the cast members are good, but Jah is very special…Ultimately we do feel for this victim of exploitation, and that is the major accomplishment of the play.”
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"A disappointing, heavily overstylized production...Jah is superb as the Venus...Mambo and Conlee, are fine as well, but the rest of the cast are like amateurish caricatures, which might be the point but it detracts from the narrative nonetheless...Parks and deBessonet get to the heart of the matter early on; the bulk of the two-hour and fifteen-minute protest play merely hammers home the same ideas about gender, race, and cruelty, aspects of humanity still prevalent today."
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