“Venus in Fur”—a dark comedy by David Ives that takes gender politics and issues of domination to mythic proportions —will be the second play of the Hampton Theatre Company’s 2017-2018 season, opening on January 11, 2018 at the Quogue Community Hall and running through January 28, 2018.
Desperate to find an actress to play the female lead in his stage adaptation of Leopold von Sacher-Masoch’s ”Venus in Furs”—the novel that inspired the term "masochism"— beleaguered playwright/director Thomas Novachek auditions a vulgar, unschooled, and equally desperate actress.
Though utterly wrong for the sophisticated part, Vanda piques the playwright’s interest with her seductive talents, blunt humor and secretive manner. As the two work through the script, they blur the line between play and reality, entering into an increasingly serious game of submission and domination that only one of them can win.
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Tina Jones and Tristan Vaughan. Photo: Tom Kochie.
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In a New York Times review, Christopher Isherwood wrote that “Venus in Fur” offers “a seriously smart and very funny stage seminar on the destabilizing nature of sexual desire.” Described as a “comic free-for-all” in a Bloomberg review, the play was called “fiery, intense, and so sexy you could sweat” by the reviewer for The Philadelphia Inquirer.
The cast of “Venus in Fur” features one Hampton Theatre Company veteran and one actor performing for the first time with the troupe. Tristan Vaughan, playing Thomas Novachek, previously appeared with the HTC in “The Enchanted April” and “Deathtrap.” The founder with his wife Morgan Vaughan of the Round Table Theatre in East Hampton, he directed and acted in the Round Table production of Shakespeare’s Scottish play at LTV Studios and played the title role in “Hamlet” in the Round Table production at the John Drew Theater at Guild Hall in East Hampton.
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Tina Jones and Tristan Vaughan. Photo: Tom Kochie.
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Tina Jones, playing Vanda, has performed on the East End at Guild Hall and Bay Street Theater. She has worked in regional theater across the country, including at Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Baltimore Centre Stage, American Conservatory Theatre, and San Jose Repertory Theatre, among others, as well as Broadway, Off-Off Broadway, film and television.
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Tina Jones. Photo: Tom Kochie.
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American playwright, screenwriter, and novelist David Ives is perhaps best known for his comic one-act plays; in 1997 a review in the New York Times referred to him as the "maestro of the short form." He has also written dramatic plays, narrative stories, and screenplays, adapted French 17th and 18th-century classical comedies, and adapted 33 musicals for New York City's Encores! series.
The playwright’s “All in the Timing,” an evening of six one-act plays, earned rave reviews when it opened in 1993, won the Outer Critics Circle John Gassner Award for Playwriting, was included in “Best Plays of 1993 - 1994,” and in 1995 - 1996 was the most performed play in the U.S. after Shakespeare plays.
“Venus in Fur” opened Off-Broadway at the Classic Stage Company in January 2010; it premiered on Broadway in October 2011 at the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre, produced by the Manhattan Theatre Club. The play transferred to the Lyceum Theatre in February 2012 for an extended run.
HTC Artistic Director Diana Marbury directs. Set design is by Sean Marbury; lighting design by Sebastian Paczynski; and costumes by Teresa Lebrun.
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Tina Jones and Tristan Vaughan. Photo: Tom Kochie. Courtesy of the Hampton Theatre Company.
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Following its successful introduction last year, an additional Saturday matinee performance will be offered on the final weekend of the production, prior to the regular 8 p.m. performance that evening. Offered by HTC in association with the Quogue Club at the Hallock House, there will also be a special lunch and theater package available for the Saturday matinee on January 27. For information on the Quogue Club matinee package, visit www.hamptontheatre.org or call 631-653-8955.
“Venus in Fur" runs at the Quogue Community Hall from January 11 to 28, with shows on Thursdays and Fridays at 7, Saturdays at 8 and Sundays at 2:30. The additional matinee performance of “Venus in Fur” will be presented on Saturday, January 27, at 2:30 p.m.
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Tina Jones and Tristan Vaughan. Photo: Tom Kochie.
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The Hampton Theatre Company will again be offering special dinner and theater packages in collaboration with the Westhampton, Southampton, Hampton Bays and Quogue libraries. For information about all packages and available discounts, visit www.hamptontheatre.org or email [email protected]. Additional information about library dinner and theater packages is also available through the libraries.
To reserve tickets, visit www.hamptontheatre.org, or call OvationTix at 1-866-811-4111.
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