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

One of the subjects that’s often covered in preschool is learning about the five senses. Understanding our senses helps us describe the world around us and our experience in it, and it’s fun to explore the senses in different ways.

Rock Your Homeschool has a great free printables pack having to do with the five senses. I love the foldable activity shown above because it emphasizes that the way we really experience our senses is through our brains. They also have a sensory scavenger hunt printable, which doesn’t include taste but has the rest of the senses included.

Of course we don’t really want kids tasting things they find outside (unless you happen to have fruit or vegetables growing nearby) but I like the way Hands on Teaching Ideas handled it by including “something an animal would eat” on their five senses scavenger hunt.

Sea of Knowledge has lots of ideas for things to do with preschoolers to learn about the five senses, as well as this free with email signup template for making a five senses craft (you could also trace the child’s hands instead of using the hands in the template if you like).

Use a potato head toy you probably already have to play a five senses game with the download from A Little Pinch of Perfect. You could do the same thing on paper with a potato (or human body) shape and color on the different sense organs.

Simple Everyday Mom has a cute set of senses puppets you can print and play with, or use for different projects and crafts.

Preschool Packets has a whole set of posts dealing with teaching the five senses (the one linked here is for hearing but the rest are linked within that post), which includes a great idea for making shakers with kids to explore the sense of hearing.

Tim’s Printables has some cute five senses printables where kids can match the image to the sense you’d use to explore it. There’s also a body to label but I think there’s only a male version.

Have you read?