After witnessing a contentious and emotional card game between two senior citizens in The Gin Game, which kicked off Bristol Riverside Theatre’s 2024-25 mainstage season in September, audiences will now experience an intense power struggle between a frustrated director and (seemingly) unprepared actress in Venus in Fur.
David Ives’ provocatively comedic play, which celebrates opening night on Thursday, Oct. 24, at The Regency Room as BRT continues to undergo renovations, follows playwright Thomas Novachek (Atticus Shaindlin) as he holds auditions for his adaptation of a 19th-century novel by Leopold von Sacher-Masoch. The novel famously spawned the term masochism (from the author’s name) after its exploration of dominance and submission.
As Novachek is about to give up after a day of unsuccessful auditions, Vanda Jordan (Lea DiMarchi) bursts into the room. Brash, bold and unrefined, she’s an unlikely candidate for the role of the sophisticated female lead … or so it appears. As the audition proceeds, Vanda unexpectedly reveals a deep understanding of the character, and the boundaries between reality and the play begin to blur. What follows is a psychological cat-and-mouse game, as the power dynamic shifts between the characters, raising questions about gender roles, power and the nature of seduction.
The two-person show is 90 minutes with no intermission.
For DiMarchi, who spoke with The Times ahead of opening night, it’s a thrill to be making her BRT debut after having the theater on her radar for some time. Earlier this year, DiMarchi performed in a show in Florida alongside Jo Twiss, wife of former BRT artistic director and The Gin Game star Keith Baker, who gushed about the beauty of Bucks County, an area that DiMarchi had yet to visit. Therefore, when auditions opened in the summer for Venus in Fur, a show that she always had her eye on, she knew that she couldn’t pass up the opportunity.
“It’s a show that has always scared me a little bit and it’s always kind of called to me,” she said. “I think it’s one of those tour de force female roles that I always said, ‘If I get the chance to play this and I’m brave enough, let me give it a go.’ ”
Venus in Fur premiered Off-Broadway in 2010 at the Classic Stage Company before its Broadway appearance in 2011 at the Manhattan Theatre Club/Samuel J. Friedman Theatre. The production received critical acclaim, earning lead actress Nina Arianda a Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play for her role as Vanda, and a Tony nomination for Best Play. It has since been performed on stages worldwide, including in Australia, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Israel, the UK and Spain.
Now, DiMarchi, a professional actress of over 10 years who hails from Hawaii, is ready to put her own spin on the character of Vanda, an individual whom she described as having much ambiguity and lore surrounding her.
“At first glance, she seems like a pretty ditzy actress who comes into an audition hours late, very unprepared. She seems like she does not know much, and by the end of the play, there’s quite a turning of that on its head. There are questions about her,” she said. “Is she a goddess that’s come down from above? Is she an actress who’s pretending to be dumb to seek revenge on this sexist director? Is she a secret agent? There’s a lot of purposeful ambiguity around it. But like all roles, I’m trying to bring my training to it.”
DiMarchi trained at Carnegie Mellon’s drama school, where her co-star Shaindlin was a freshman when she was a senior.
“Even though we weren’t in the same class per se, we have a very similar set of tools to use and a very similar way of working,” she said. “So it’s really fun to get to play with another actor who I trust explicitly and who is just a joy to work with.”
The actress praised producing directors Ken and Amy Kaissar, who wanted DiMarchi’s blessing before casting the male lead given the nature of the show. When Shaindlin’s name came up, DiMarchi didn’t hesitate to give them the green light.
“It’s a challenging play that talks very brazenly about sexuality, gender dynamics, power, abusive power, attraction. It deals with a lot of huge subjects that, at the crux of humanity, we often don’t talk about or face in real life,” DiMarchi said. “And I think most women at some point have dealt with men or individuals making assumptions about us or putting us in a box. Especially as an actress, I think there are a lot of power dynamics at play. So I’m trying to take my own personal experience and views on those things into the role.”
According to DiMarchi, the “in the round” set up of The Regency Room, which has audiences on all sides of the stage, adds another layer to the performance.
“They’ll be really up close with the actors in this and probably be able to see the beads of sweat on us and whatnot,” she said with a laugh. “It’s actually kind of fun. I like it maybe more than proscenium, or thrust stage, which is standard, because it’s less about cheating out. In theater, if you’re on a thrust stage, you always have to think about turning your body and your face out toward the audience so that they can see you. You can’t just face the other actors straight on like you would in conversation. You’ve gotta always open up a foot or always open up your body so that the audience can see what’s going on. But in this play, it feels actually a little bit more natural to move in a circular pattern.”
For those who come to see Venus in Fur, DiMarchi urged them to have an open mind, and be prepared to be challenged and have deep conversations on the car ride home.
“It’s less of a production of, ‘Oh, I really liked that show,’ or, ‘I didn’t like that show.’ It’s more about, ‘What did you think? What did you think Vanda represented? Who is in the right here? Who was overreacting?’ I hope that people who come see it may have a conversation that they’ve never had before, whether it’s about sexuality, whether it’s about attraction or gender, something in that realm that maybe scares them or makes them a little bit uncomfortable to talk about,” DiMarchi said. “That’s the goal. I want them to ask questions and be a little thrown off, maybe even a little confused at the end.”
Venus in Fur runs through Nov. 10 at The Regency Room, 190 Mifflin St., Bristol. For tickets and more information, visit brtstage.org, call 215-785-0100 or stop by the BRT box office at 120 Radcliffe St. from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Samantha Bambino can be reached at sbambino@newspapermediagroup.com
