The Star: October 05, 2017

The Star Latest Christchurch news at www.star.kiwi
Thursday October 5 2017 39
Theatre/Arts
Director brings racy play to stage
• By Georgia O’Connor-Harding
Lara
Macgregor
CALLING THE shots on an
edgy new show delving into
themes of sexual dominance
and submissiveness has been
described as a “new world to
dive into” by director Lara
Macgregor.
She is in charge of The Court
Theatre’s Venus In Fur, a racy
play raising questions about what
is real and what is not, who is in
control and who
dominates.
Sound
familiar?
While it is
difficult not to
draw comparisons
to erotic
romance novel
Fifty Shades of
Grey, Macgregor
characterises the show as intellectual
rather than having a
“down and dirty” approach.
“There is a lot of comedy, a
lot of mystery and there is a lot
of psychological game-playing,
which really pushes the audience,”
she said.
Macgregor, who is based in
Hoon Hay, said the show looks
deeply into the complexities of
communication between a male
and female.
SPARKS FLY: Daniel Watterson as Thomas and Jessie
Lawrence as Vanda in The Court Theatre’s new production of
Venus In Fur.
A play within a play, the show
begins with New York theatre
playwright Thomas auditioning
women to play the principal role
in his adaption of the erotic 1870
novel Venus in Furs.
The novel by Austrian author
Leopold von Sacher-Masoch
happens to have inspired the
term ‘masochism’ in real life.
During the auditions, a
mysterious character, Vanda, appears
in the story and convinces
Thomas to read with her. When
they both become caught up in
their characters, fantasy and
reality is blurred.
Macgregor said audiences here
often do not see a lot of plays
which are sexual in nature and it
was a change to be dealing with
sexuality. “In the 1960s, you used
to go to theatre where there was
a lot of naked people and that
was just a reflection on society at
that time. We are just not really
in that trend of theatre really,”
she said.
A freelance director involved
with The Court Theatre since
2008, Macgregor, who is originally
from Wellington, has been
based in the city for more than
six months.
It has been an exciting year for
Macgregor, who said she directed
one of her most challenging
shows The Curious Incident of
the Dog in the Night-Time at The
Court Theatre earlier this year.
She said like Venus In Fur, it
covered complex subject matters
such as domestic violence,
divorce and people who don’t
care about others in difficult conditions.
“You are dealing with
nature and the human condition
every day . . . you are a psychologist,”
she said.
But Macgregor said in spite
of often dealing with difficult
subject matter, she loves telling
stories for a job.
•Venus In Fur runs at The
Court Theatre from October
21 to November 11. To
book tickets, go to https://
courttheatre.org.nz