Review – Venus In Fur Brisbane Australia

QPAC played host to this remarkable play by the Queensland Theatre Company called Venus In Fur by David Ives.

It was witty, sexy and thought-provoking. If you read Fifty Shades of Grey then this play will interest you and not because of the reference to S&M but some of the psychology behind it.

The lead actress Libby Munro was amazing. I always leave plays wondering how they even remember their lines, but the way she went in and out of the roles – it was flawless.

I would without a doubt recommend this play! It’s a definite add to your “Go See” list. Tickets $45-$65.

Here is the actual Write-up from the QPAC Website.

The end of a long day of casting, and playwright-director Thomas (Todd Macdonald) can’t find the right woman. He needs beautiful-sexy-articulate, young, with a “particle of brain”. He needs someone to play a mistress, but has endured a parade of 35 misfires.

Thomas is adapting Venus In Furs, the infamously kinky 1870 novel by Austrian writer Leopold von Sacher-Masoch –the etymological father of masochism. It calls for a purring, confident dominatrix.

He gets more than he expected when the raging storm blows in Vanda (Libby Munro) – late, frazzled, with the very litany of the flaws he just decried. She talks of Venus in Furs as one might talk of Fifty Shades of Grey.

As the director takes a chance and allows her to read anyway, the balance of power tilts between actress and director, mistress and slave. Thomas and Vanda become two people handcuffed at the heart in David Ives’ deliciously sassy, sexy, character-driven power-play.

Take direction: Submit, and spend an evening at the mercy of Venus in Fur.

Please note this performance contains strong and high level coarse language, strong sexual references, adult references to relationships, fidelity and sexuality

Mason jars are fun to craft with, use for storage or even use to hold gifts like baking mixes or sugar scrubs. But you can make your jars even cuter — no matter what you’re using them for — by adding a bit of cross stitch to the lid.

This idea comes from Gathered, and while they are showing examples of Mason jars used for storage in the craft room, you can use these throughout the house. I’m also thinking you could do this as a way to fancy up a traditional Mason jar sewing kit, since there’s already a little batting under the piece of cross stitch you could still use it as a pincushion.

The post walks you through how to make a cross stitched Mason jar lids and a link to a PDF pattern that includes six design options.

They’re not totally for beginners because they include cross stitch, backstitch, eyelets and Rhodes stitch, but if you aren’t familiar with those techniques you can either leave them off or there’s a stitch diagram in the PDF to help you.

Either way these designs are cute and relatively quick to stitch in whatever colors you like. It’s easy to turn them into jar toppers, or you could even just use the Mason jar ring as a frame rather than using it on top of a jar (I did this with a little Christmas tree cross stitch pattern I turned into an ornament).

They’re super cute in the pastel colors shown, or work in red and green for more of a holiday look if you’re using them for gift giving.

Check out the instructions and grab the free patterns for these jar toppers at Gathered. Once you start stitching I’m sure you’ll come up with all sorts of things you want to store or gift in jars so that you can make more of them!

[Photo: Gathered]

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