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Venus In Fur
David Ives
Venus
by Suzan-lori Parks
Synopsis
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.
Press Reviews
"VENUS is a formidable experience: a gnarly but brilliant meditation on the ambiguity of race, history, the colonized imagination, sexuality, and theatrical storytelling itself.” —The New Yorker. “The true story of a 19th-century Hottentot woman shipped from Africa to England and displayed as a freak was turned into a chilly but gripping play by Suzan-Lori Parks.” —Time Magazine. “Suzan-Lori Parks is…one of the most important dramatists America has ever produced. VENUS addresses a number of subjects, including race, gender, science, love, slavery, colonialism, art, pleasure and death. It tells a tragic story discursively, digressively, elliptically, mockingly, shockingly, heartbreakingly."
— Civilization Magazine
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Zainab Jah on Suzan-Lori Parks' Venus
Publication
Publisher Dramatists Play Service
Year 1997
Binding Paperback
Edition 1st
Pages 96
Place New York
Language English
ISBN-13 9781559361354
ISBN-10 1559361352
eISBN-13 9781559367387
LCCN 97005739
LCC PS3566.A736 V46 1997
DCC 812/.54
Venus is a American play written by Suzan-lori Parks and published by Dramatists Play Service in New York (1997).
Digital editions available on Amazon Kindle, Apple Books, Google Play (eISBN 9781559367387).
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