Venus

by Suzan-Lori Parks

Book Overview

Suzan-Lori Parks continues her examination of black people in history and stage through the life of the so-called "Hottentot Venus," an African woman displayed semi-nude throughout Europe due to her extraordinary physiognomy; in particular, her enormous buttocks. She was befriended, bought and bedded by a doctor who advanced his scientific career through his anatomical measurements of her after her premature death.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1559361352
• ISBN13: 9781559361354
• Release Date: April 1997
• Publisher: Theatre Communications Group
• Length: 96 Pages
• Weight: 0.58 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 5.4" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

Rides roughshod over sexual boundaries

Venus's terrifyingly ambivalent character is gradually exposed throughout the course of this short yet explosive piece of experimental erotica. It would be all too easy to write this off as a drugsploitation piece, but a deeper truth is revealed by the powerful combinations of peyote and yage which the Doctor administers to his (initially) unwilling young patients, turning them into voracious, yet compliant, sexual zombies. I found this book powerfully arousing - the Doctor is the very epitome of the fin-de-siecle cult leader, with a monstrous sexual appetite to match his towering charisma - and yet a surprising intellectual challenge. I recommend it to broad-minded adults everywhere.

Top quality theatrical sexuality

Wow! The play really drives home the raw and powerful sexuality of the Gods, and Venus the Queen of Sexuality plays nakedly amongst them all. Some may say pornographic, but the overall feel is of joyful fulfilment and erogenous excitement, transcending the everyday into an orgasmic, almost-orgiastic ritual society of rarified existence. Powerful physical interactions between players bordering on the overtly pornographic in places, definately phallic and in the best tradition of Greek theatre. Recommended for lovers and therapists!

Well worth putting your hand in your pocket for - I did!

I must say that I thoroughly enjoyed reading this play. It took several attempts, as I frequently became 'overwhelmed' due to the stimulating nature of the material - and you know how it is after getting 'overwhelmed'...you just don't want to read on any more. Anyway, this is very high-class stuff indeed, and compares favourably (on a purely artistic level, of course) with such luminaries of the art as Georges Bataille and (particularly) Russ Meyer.

If there is a voice that has risen beyond the multicultural

....to the metaphorical, this is it. Although not published yet, the play has been produced and I'll tell you I'm one of the lucky ones to have sat through the entire pleasure of it. Suzan-Lori Parks makes THINKING in the theatre ENTERTAINING, makes entertaiment a joyful exploration of mind and soul. She is a shimmering lake at sunset, a depth we can only guess at but a beauty that brings us back and back and back...