By Paul Horsley

Always look both ways before crossing, because sometimes the car that hits you comes from the place you least expect. The season-opening productions by the KC Actors Theatre and the KC Rep offered meaty subjects and impressive performances, but the show that I’ll most remember is the Unicorn Theatre’s Venus in Fur, thanks largely to a mesmerizing performance by Vanessa Severo playing an aspiring actress and God knows what else. David Ives’ two-character  play from 2011 is a 90-minute virtuoso vehicle about an actress, Vanda, who shows up to audition for a play based on Leopold Sacher-Masoch’s 1870 novel Venus in Furs. Yes, that Masoch, from whose name we get the word “masochism.” The playwright-director, Thomas (Rusty Sneary, who very nearly matches Vanessa’s panache), insists the play is not about his own sexual tastes, but he slowly realizes that not only is this feisty actress (whose name, coincidentally, is Vanda) ideal for the part, she might actually be the part – if he could only figure out who the character is.

Both players slide seamlessly from brash New York-ese into a sort of Central European lilt, often on a dime, as they read Thomas’ script and “become” the characters yet continue to slip back out of character to argue about the plausibility of the play’s theses. Thomas ends up reading the role of Kushemski, the aristocratic lead in his play who craves sexual domination (while railing against the popular embrace of “whatever dime-store psychology is in People magazine this week”). But as Vanda takes ferocious control of her part – at times true to the script, at times improvised according to her whim – Thomas struggles to keep up. (“Maybe this female-domination thing is not all it’s cracked up to be?” he might be wondering.)

Vanya claims merely to have flipped through the script on the subway but in fact seems to know it with uncanny intimacy – not just the play but the whole history of Sacher-Masoch and his psycho-sexual hang-ups. And as Vanya – both as herself and as “Vanya” – gradually begins to question Thomas (or is it Kushemski? or Sacher-Masoch?) as to the nature of this purported “arousal by domination.” To wit: Is male-female S&M ultimately just another twisted way in which men subjugate women, becoming in fact the “superior” force through the willful act of giving up control to the woman (temporarily, of course)? Is S&M itself theater, the enactment of a world where women wield power that is in fact only make-believe?

These questions are addressed both directly and indirectly, with ample doses of humor, as Vanda slides in and out of character – and in and out of a brash array of costumes (by Georgianna Buchanan) that include slinky black lingerie and, for the Vanda Dunayev, a long, demure white dress. The lighting, by Alex Perry, is highly effective, with garish fluorescents at the outset that give way, with the flip of a switch, to warm-hued “stage lighting.” Sound designer Michael Heuer deserves credit for the convincing and deftly-timed lightning bolts, which as the play progresses lend an increasing sense that there are other-worldly forces at work. Cynthia Levin’s stage direction is as firm as ever: She moves characters about the Unicorn’s tiny Jerome Stage in a way that is both natural and aimed to heighten its claustrophobic quality. If the play has a flaw it’s that the ending feels abrupt and inconclusive – by design, perhaps, but in a way that leaves you wondering whether the thing is really over. Still, the evening belongs to Vanessa, who embodies Vanda’s sexuality so blatantly and convincingly that you almost want to look away, yet brings a light-heartedness to the part that is fundamentally hilarious.

Venus in Fur runs through September 29th. For tickets call 816-531-7529 or go to unicorntheatre.org.

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