Venus in Fur

No, not “Venus in Furs” !

It is  “Venus in Fur” without the ‘s’.

It is not a play of the book. Well it is, indirectly.

This is a stage play – and a film now – about a stage director who is auditioning actresses for his own adaptation of the book “Venus in Furs”, and almost in despair of never finding the right one, allows a final audition to an outwardly trashy actress, who not only surprises him by her amazing acting  as the play progresses , but also completely turns his life around.

Confused yet? I was when I first heard of the play. Like many outside the theatre-going public it was when film director Roman Polanski announced he was going to produce his own adaptation in a French translation, with his wife Emmanuelle Seigner and Mathieu Amalric in the lead roles. I naturally assumed it was a dramatisation of the book itself. In fact there are only two actors in the entire play so when I first read about it and then later saw the stills from the movie I was admittedly cool about it.
After all, how could the whole of Venus in Furs be dramatised on stage with only two actors?

Of course I did not make the distinction.

But people kept asking me what I thought of the film (because of my translation and illustrations I was now thought of as some authority, maybe) so in the end I relented, thinking I had to base an opinion and so I sat grimly through the first few minutes. Rather like the director on stage Thomas Novachek (not the director of the play itself, by the way) who gradually warms to the personality of actress Vanda Jordan, I warmed to the script as I realised that the play’s author David Ives really understood the book itself and I started to enjoy the way the two characters reacted to each other and was thoroughly won over as the film ended.

So when the play finally came to Theatre Royal Haymarket in London I was enthusiastic to see it. In company with Mistress Tess and her admirer, we saw Natalie Dormer as Vanda and David Oakes as Thomas in a production directed by Patrick Marber. I was pleased at last to hear it in English instead of subtitled from the French film and it quite lived up to my expectations. Lots of great comic and insightful moments that really reflected the whole dynamic between Severin and Wanda in the original book.

The Weimar Series

This recent series – made for Japanese magazine “Goddess love” (女神の愛) takes the theme of a drinking-club in 1920’s Germany, at the time of the Weimar Republic, where the main female characters are played by world-famous mistresses. I wanted to show a decadent and raffish atmosphere, but add a sense of nostalgia for a past period of modern history.
This is a club run by females for females, but also for subservient men so long as they are well behaved and paying :- if not, a strict management policy is enforced!

1. In the first scene Domina Liza, dressed in an opulent fur coat, is shown pointing to the illuminated entrance of the club. Her besotted and extremely wealthy slave will be required to take her inside for an exorbitantly expensive evening.

2. Now we see Lady Lola, playfully teasing a waiter who is dressed in a pretty waitress outfit. Her touch is obviously upsetting him so much he is likely to spill his tray at any moment.

3. The scene moves outwards to Mrs Weltsova who is sitting on a stool, sipping her cocktail, her feet being worshipped by an obviously drunk customer who is behaving very indecently .

4. Over comes Princess Aurora in her military-style costume and ejects him swiftly from the premises with a well-directed kick from polished boots. No rowdiness in this club!

In the tradition of these series it moves à la ronde back to the first image where the disgraced customer finds himself  collapsed in a heap and half-conscious beside the entrance.

If you live in Japan you can buy the present issue -No 15 – from Amazon.
Regrettably the magazine cannot be bought overseas.

Portrait of Mistress Liberty

A simple theme :- wrapped warmly in a beautiful white fur coat, Mistress Liberty takes her rubber-encased slave for a walk in the early morning, down through the snow-covered gardens of her palatial estate.

Learn more about Sardax portraiture and commissioning at the main Sardax website

Please remember if you are commissioning for a birthday or anniversary to leave a few months as there is usually a waiting list for commissioned artwork.