VENUS IN FUR Begins Run at Centaur Theatre Tonight

Centaur Theatre opens its 46th season with Venus in Fur, the Tony-nominated smash hit by New York playwright, David Ives. The hot ticket, both on and Off-Broadway, took Toronto by storm in the Canadian Stage production last autumn, and this fall Rick Miller and Carly Street reprise their steamy roles for Montreal audiences under the masterful direction of Jennifer Tarver.

As a storm brews outside, the electric Vanda arrives late for an audition, hell-bent on convincing Thomas that she is perfect for the lead in his play about pain, punishment, and power. What had been a futile day of auditions transforms into a terrifying, intense and hilarious high-stakes tango in which the rigid roles of dominant male director and supplicant female actor morph into that of a helpless mortal, and his vengeful goddess.

Women in art, sexual politics, and gender roles are just some of the hot topics skillfully woven into this one-act gem based on the erotic book by Leopold von Sacher-Masoch, whose name and work spawned the term masochist. Centaur's ebullient Artistic and Executive Director, Roy Surette, said, "Always open the season with a bang and what makes a bigger bang than sex? Ives has constructed a taut, sexual labyrinth within the already charged framework of a theatre audition. It's richly steeped in myth, art and humour and when you add these two actors to the mix ... instant atomic blast!".

Rick Miller summarized the play's widespread appeal since it hit Broadway in 2011 with, "It's sexy, entertaining, smart and it's a great ride. To me that's where theatre works best, when it actually transports you out of yourself [...] and you don't know what's going to happen and you leave not knowing answers but asking more questions."

Carly Street won both the Dora Mavor Moore Award and the Toronto Theatre Critics Award for Best Actress as the seemingly witless Vanda. Gemini and Dora Award-winning Miller, known on five continents for his work in five languages, is the self-assured playwright in for a life- altering afternoon. Jennifer Tarver, who directed the Toronto production that won the Dora Award for Top Audience Choice, is once again at the helm assisted by Andrew Shaver, whoCentaur audiences will remember as the director of Trad, Haunted Hillbilly and Stones in His Pockets.

Debra Hanson created a spartan set to reflect the barren audition hall, a blank canvas that enables the characters and audience to drift effortlessly between fantasy and reality. Props and costumes, ranging from shocking to opulent and also designed by Hanson, come to life under Michael Walton's lighting which suggests a film set where real and unreal routinely collide. Lyon Smith's sound creates the stormy conditions, both within and without and Michael Sinclair stage manages the team.