Anasuya Vaidya’s I’m Your Venus was a testimony of a man-woman relationship and the in depth-complexities of dominance and acquiescence, reports Ila Sankrityayan
Well, I’m your Venus, I’m your fire at your desire, these beautiful and sensuous lines when echoed inside the auditorium of Akshara theatre it transformed the entire environment into something more personal, intimate and powerful. On the brink of a nice pleasant evening, the play, I’m Your Venus kicked off on a jolly fine note with most thought provoking ideas focussing on Venus, the Roman goddess of love. She is also a symbol of sexuality as is Aphrodite, the older Greek goddess, to whom the play also makes reference. “like all divine symbols, this one, too, is subject to abuse, misuse and ownership by humans. The play is about human weakness and strength,” said Anasuya Vaidya, playwright-director. The presentation appeared like a pas de deux of men and women exploring some forbidden or controversial aspects of sexuality and at the same time an intelligent and mature look into the male-female, powerful-powerless aspects of relationship.
Subtle direction and fine ensemble acting all synthesised to transform the theatre as a vehicle to reveal the dark side of human mentality. Throughout the ages we have seen men are strong, powerful and authoritative. Women are weak, submissive and passive. Men give orders and lay down rules of the society and women follows. This play looks at a man who is the opposite. He wants to be ruled, dominated, even hurt, by woman. But despite all that, even he ultimately follows the power hierarchy. The play examines the role-reversal through the play-within-a-play format. It examines the concepts of dominance and submission, using the text of the 19th century book, Venus in Furs, as the foundation.
“Venus In Furs is a story based on what could perhaps be described as an aberrant form of love, in which a man seeks to be dominated by a woman. The play by David Ives goes several steps further and searches into the different types of relationships that exist between men and women. It also shows how some attitudes towards women haven’t changed since the 19th century. I found the play a really witty and intelligent exploration of a different concept of love. I was looking for a play that was both powerful and provocative, that takes on issues which are not normally discussed, and I think this fits the bill. I have shortened the original play, but it is a universal theme so I don’t think the nationality of the audience matters that much. It is an entertaining, intelligent, even philosophical play which would appeal to intelligent theatre lovers everywhere,” she added.
I’m Your Venus was set in two time and geographical zones — contemporary New York and 18th century Germany. One part of the story which was the audition, was set in modern New York. But once the actors started reading from the script, they switch to 19th century Germany. There were actually three layers in the play, but each layer switches seamlessly from one to the other. The layers were of time, space and gender. This was where the skill of the actors comes in — to achieve that transition without making it look complicated.
The play began with a scene of a small audition studio on a stormy evening in New York. Playwright Thomas Novachek (played by Rakesh Palisetty) was trying to find the right actress for the part of Vanda von Dunayev. Suddenly a young actress, Wanda Jordan (played by Nisa Shetty) burst in. Novachek was reading the part of Sever in Von Kushemski, a man who longs to be dominated by a woman. Jordan was reading the part of Vanda von Dunayev, a strong and dominant young woman. As they analyse the play and the characters, Wanda was shown as having a keen analytical mind in understanding not just the play, but the human condition generally. Sometimes she and Thomas fought bitterly over the interpretation of the characters. When Thomas was in the final stages of submission, Wanda/Vanda turned into Venus/Aphrodite, the goddess of love. She declares passionately, “We dance to the glory of the Gods! We dance to the glory of Aphrodite!”
Anasuya revealed about the choice of actors to complement the role and staging of her daughter Nisa, “The play is written for two characters and they are challenging and demanding roles. Nisa Shetty is the leading young actress in our repertory and the natural choice for the role of Vanda/Venus. Nisa is able to understand all the finer nuances and subtle shades of the characters she is playing and to bring them out to perfection, and its always a joy to work with her. The fact that she is my daughter is the icing on the cake! The male character of Novachek has been played by Rakesh Palisetty. It is really interesting how he interpreted the character. Rakesh (who has acted in numerous Akshara productions) gives a fine portrayal of Kushemski’s tortuous relationship with Vanda.”
Further shared Vaidya about the core issues highlighted in the play, “The play is about different kinds of power — the power-play between man and woman, between dominant and submissive, between human and divine. Humans, being complex, emotional beings, can express love in many different ways not all of which are approved by society. We have the lGBT phenomenon and then there are even more forbidden forms of love or desire — like sadism and masochism. But while sadism is a phenomenon where one person derives pleasure from physically dominating another, even through causing pain (such as was portrayed in Fifty Shades Of Grey), masochism is a phenomenon where a person enjoys domination, even pain, at the hands of another. These are complex emotional and sexual desires, perhaps the dark side of love and sex.”
She continued about relevance of dealing with these subjects, “There is a lot of debate in India about different expressions of love and sexuality. Our society has only recently started discussing these subjects openly. The play talks about one of the ‘forbidden’ aspect of sexuality. But it is important that we should understand that human relationships and sexuality are complex and multi-layered.”