Volume
III
Issue 17
Summer 2001
Venus and Adonis Get Strange
by Abby Luttrell
Venus and Adonis
By William Shakespeare
Directed by James Kerwin
Presented by The Lone Star Ensemble
The 2nd Stage Theatre
Los Angeles, Calif.
Now one of Shakespeare's lesser-known works, Venus and Adonis is a narrative poem. At a time when theatrical plays were temporarily banned during an outbreak of bubonic plague in Elizabethan times, staged readings of this poem were enormously popular all across England.
Was the bubonic plague crowd looking for a few laughs? I don't know. Lord knows they needed them. All I can tell you is the Lone Star Ensemble's rendition is the "Dumb and Dumber" version.
Venus, played in full Valley Girl style by Megan Henning, wants to jump the bones of computer geek Adonis, played by Brian Stanton. He is completely absorbed in his computer game "B.O.A.R." (Get it? Shakespeare's Adonis is obsessed with boar hunting.)
This production prides itself on its multimedia approach, engineered with the help of Imagination Works, Inc. The computer game is projected on a screen onstage, accompanied by pulsing graphics, throbbing techno music and supporting characters dressed as computer game superheroes who occasionally grope each other in front of the multimedia screen.
Poster image courtesy The Lone Star Ensemble.
This Venus doesn't go in for gentle wiles - she woos Adonis by throwing him to the floor and rendering him immobile in a wrestling grip. When this technique doesn't seem to win him over, she dons a silver catsuit and black dominatrix boots. When all else fails, she throws a tantrum. Believe me, you don't want to piss off this Valley Girl. When she shrieks, "Woe!", watch out. She's no goddess, she's a princess.
As for Adonis, he skulks around the stage, desperately trying to avoid her grasp. This stringy, dour, petulant nerd fends Venus off with rolling eyes and sulky whining.
Adonis is not totally devoid of sexual feeling, however. In one unforgettable scene he wires himself up to give his dick an electrical buzz. And when the despairing Venus is comatose from an overdose, he slyly makes his move and humps her instead of trying to revive her. When he then launches into an impassioned speech on the merits of spiritual love over base lust, he definitely has a credibility problem.
The grand denouement of the piece is the death of Adonis. He hangs limply in center stage with his mouth hanging open, dead from electrocution, having just given his balls the shock of a lifetime. Venus wails over his demise in her gameboy outfit.
When the lights came up, the actors eagerly peered into the audience, expecting applause. There was a moment of complete silence. The audience was stunned, not knowing whether it was over or not and afraid to hope.
DeeDee Hamilton, as the Chorus, and Jennifer Slimko, as Venus' Avatar, gave their line readings dignity and real feeling, qualities pretty scarce in this production. John Furgason designed the imaginative set and James Robert Fritz was responsible for the creative lighting.
About the Author:
Abby Luttrell is a writer/director who has just finished her first feature film, Surviving in L.A. This is her first article for the Newsletter.
Resources:
The website for this production can be found at: http://www.lonestarensemble.org/