A brewing storm that takes no prisoners

On paper, an erotically charged dark comedy about a man's struggles with his own sexual foibles does not seem like what the world wants right now. However David Ives' electric play does its best to confront the politics of gender in a frank and ultimately fascinating way that will inspire as much after show conversation as the production's marketing promises titillation.

It's a solid two hander concerning writer/director David Novacheck (a fantastic David Oakes) and actress Vanda Jordan (Natalie Dormer) who's turned up late to audition for his forthcoming play, the titular Venus in Fur, which he's adapted from Leopold von Sacher-Masoch's (from whom we get the word masochism) 1870 novel. After much cajoling, David abandons dinner plans with his fiance and agrees to read a scene with her - after all, she has brought her own props and costumes.

What follows is a dance that bristles with intensity, mirrored by a growing tempest outside. Vanda and Thomas spar beautifully, switching from the script to the 'reality' outside with pace that quickens the pulse and heightens the senses. From the themes of the book 'it's just S&M porn right?' to Novachek's own kinks, and his increasingly elusive reason for adapting the work, Vanda constricts and loosens until she has him literally, and us metaphorically, tied up and silently begging for release.

His motivation may be revealed to be shaky at best but Vanda's are positively hazy - why is she, this perfect woman for both the part and its author, even here? Natalie Dormer is incandescent as a burst of contradictions, playing demure in a leather corset and dominating in a white dress, verbally running circles around her ever more beguiled director.

And it is here that so many plays would turn the already spinning table. Novacheck would find her weakness to exploit just as she has his, he would take her in his arms and kiss her like Rhett Butler. But Ives does not deliver this trope. Though he touches closely on the 'manic pixie dream girl' Vanda is not to be a tamed shrew, she is an avenging angel, she is a woman and not just that, she's all women.

Coupled with Patrick Marber's slick direction, as well as subtle design and even more subtle sound, the 90 minute (no interval) show is a blast to sit through, as intelligent as it is exciting. Flawed, yes, but thoroughly adult and unashamed to show it. Fans of Dormer's machiavellian oeuvre (Anne Boleyn, Margaery Tyrell, Seymour Worsley) are in for a treat as she proves her stage chops and then some.

At the Theatre Royal Haymarket until December 5th

Reviewed by @ThisIsKittyMac on October 11th 2017

View our show pages for more information about Venus in Fur, Theatre Royal Haymarket.