HTC's 'Venus in Fur' Brings Sexy Laughs to Quogue Community Hall
The second play of Hampton Theatre Company’s 2017-2018 season, David Ives’ Venus in Fur, opens this Thursday, January 11 at Quogue Community Hall. The dark comedy, which takes gender politics and issues of domination to mythic proportions runs through January 28.
This sexy, funny and intense play takes audiences to the casting couch of beleaguered playwright and director Thomas Novachek. 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”—Thomas auditions Vanda, 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 read 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.
Tristan Vaughan, playing Thomas, previously appeared in the Hampton Theatre Company production of The Enchanted April and Deathtrap. The founder with his wife Morgan Vaughan of the Round Table Theatre in East Hampton, Vaughan 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 Guild Hall’s John Drew Theater in East Hampton.
Tina Jones, who plays 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. This is her first time performing with the Hampton Theatre Company troupe.
American playwright, screenwriter and novelist David Ives is perhaps best known for his comic one-act plays—in 1997, The New York Times called him a “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.
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 then transferred to the Lyceum Theatre in February 2012 for an extended run.
Hampton Theatre Company Artistic Director Diana Marbury is directing the play, with set design is by Sean Marbury, lighting design by Sebastian Paczynski and costumes by Teresa Lebrun.
See Venus in Fur at the Quogue Community Hall (125 Jessup Avenue, Quogue) from January 11–28, on Thursdays and Fridays at 7 p.m., Saturdays at 8 p.m. and Sundays at 2:30 p.m. An additional Saturday matinee performance of Venus in Fur will be offered during the final weekend of the production, prior to the regular 8 p.m. show, on Saturday, January 27 at 2:30 p.m. A special lunch and theater package, in association with the Quogue Club at the Hallock House, is available for that Saturday matinee on January 27.
The Hampton Theatre Company is also 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 hamptontheatre.org, email [email protected] or call 631-653-8955. Additional information about library dinner and theater packages is also available through the libraries.
To reserve all regular tickets, visit hamptontheatre.org or call OvationTix at 1-866-811-4111.