Venus (play)
| Venus | |
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| Written by | Suzan-Lori Parks |
| Characters | Sarah Baartman |
| Original language | English |
| Subject | Race and ethnicity |
| Setting | 19th-century London, england |
Venus (1996) is a play by Suzan-Lori Parks. It chronicles the fictional life-story of Sarah “Saartjie” Baartman, beginning from her life as an attraction for 19th century British audiences as the Hottentot Venus and ending with her death. The work is not intended to be historically accurate, but rather uses the concept of Baartman's career to explore colonization and objectification; as Parks explained, "most of it's fabricated... It's questioning the history of history... It embraces the unrecorded truth." It won 2 OBIE Awards in 1995-1996.
Inspired by the true-life story of Sarah “Saartjie” Baartman, the Venus provides a fictional account of her life abroad in 19th century London. She is lured away from her home in South Africa with the promise of riches and is put on display for British and Parisian audiences. After being sold to the owner of a sideshow known as The Mother-Showman, she is exhibited for her steatopygia and is given the stage name "The Hottentot Venus." Baartman's "act" leads to a prospering business, with Europeans all over traveling to see the display of her genitalia and buttocks. The Baron Docteur takes interest in Saartjie; he buys her from the Mother-Showman and takes her with him to Paris as his mistress. However, the Baron Docteur has plans to study her steatopygia after her death. When she contracts gonorrhea from the Baron Docteur, he conspires with his Grade-School Chum to have her jailed until her death. After her untimely death in the jail cell in Paris, a plaster cast of her body along with her skeleton is displayed at the Musée de l'Homme.
Venus was produced by George C. Wolfe in conjunction with The Joseph Pall Public Theatre, The New York Shakespeare Festival, and the Yale Repertory Theatre. It was directed by Richard Foreman, with Adina Porter as Saartjie Baartman and Peter Francis James as the Baron Docteur.
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