House Programme - Arts Club Theatre Company

DIRECTORS’ NOTESA NOTE FROM THE DIRECTOR AND ASSISTANT DIRECTOR“Pleasure alone makes existence worthwhile. A pleasure-seeker has a difficult time partingfrom life.”Leopold von Sacher-Masoch, Venus in FursMany of us spend a lot of time thinking about sex. Safe to say, the next 90 minutes is notgoing to detract you from that. And, most likely, it’ll make you laugh as well.However, Venus in Fur might also make you think about gender, power, and desire. The playis based on Leopold von Sacher-Masoch’s 1870s erotica novel Venus in Furs, which was notonly decried as completely scandalous during its time, but also inaugurated the term Sado-Masochism. As such, David Ives’ adaptation, which features a witty play-within-a-playscenario, provides an insightful exploration of, and challenge to, the history of sex, oftraditional power struggles, of the hierarchies at the core of modern theatre, and of taboodesires—asking ultimately how much of our lives may actually be ‘a little S&M’... How muchof our lives is governed by desire?How does our desire for commodities mirror our desire for sex and romance? Can weproperly negotiate power relationships? What are the boundaries between subject andobject? What do we find titillating? And what is perversion?~David Mackay and Fannina Waubert de PuiseauM.J. JEWELLERS LTD.2832 Granville Street, Vancouver604.736.6016 www.mjjewellers.caTourmaline and Diamond PendantHandcrafted in 18k Yellow Gold11