A visionary ‘Voyeur’
Summer Williams saves Company One’s ‘Venus’
According to one of the characters in Company One’s latest production, Saartjie Baartman “was bigger than J. Lo.” So much so that her big butt and unusual labia turned the South African woman into a 19th century freak show attraction known as The Hottentot Venus.
In “Voyeurs de Venus,” playwright Lydia Diamond chronicles Baartman’s tragic life from her early days as a domestic, her touring as a sideshow spectacle through her horrific death as a laboratory specimen in the hands of Dr. Georges Cuvier.
Though the tale could easily stand on its own as riveting theater, Diamond has encased it in a story that’s not as thought-provoking or emotionally charged.
Diamond’s other story features Sara Washington, an African-American wo-man who gave up her dream of the “ultimate white girl job” of first lady for a successful career as a contemporary scholar of pop culture. As she grapples with the challenges of writing a book on Baartman, the two lives become intertwined through a series of dreams and parallels that force Washington to question her own choices, heritage and motivation.
The characters are dull, forgettable clichés and the plot feels like an afterthought created to add length to Diamond’s otherwise brilliant work.
And yet despite this shortcoming, director Summer L. Williams may have proven she’s the best young director in town by making it all work. Williams uses blood, guts, humor and heart to weave the stories together, capitalizing on the strengths of two sub-plots to compensate for the weakness of the third.
Marvelyn McFarlane delivers a stunning portrayal of Baartman, beautifully capturing her obvious intelligence, playful sense of humor and haunting fear with incredible authenticity. Michael Steven Costello and Becca A. Lewis are also especially impressive as the madcap Cuvier and his doting domestic Millicent.
Despite the limited depth of their characters, Kortney Adams and Quentin James still manage to pull off solid performances as Washington and her publisher-turned-lover.
But in the end, it’s the flawless execution of Williams’ vision that makes “Venus” worth seeing.
‘Voyeurs de Venus’
Through Nov. 22
Boston Center for the Arts
539 Tremont St., Boston
MBTA: Green Line to Copley
$18-$38, 617-933-8600
www.CompanyOne.org