Venus

Dec 4 – 13, 2014

Written by: Suzan-Lori Parks

Directed by: Niegel Smith

In Suzan-Lori Parks’ highly theatrical, historical drama,Venus, the “Venus Hottentot,” a young Black woman in 1810 South Africa, is whisked away to England under false pretenses and sold to a freak show. After achieving great success for her employers, she attempts to make it on her own, but love and economics collide when she becomes the mistress of a white doctor. Unforgiving, humorous and tragic, Parks deftly blends theater of the absurd and romantic realism to question the perceived value of a black woman’s body in a white world.