I was thrilled, amused and caught in a tailspin of magic by the performances as Polanski's characters slowly seduced me into their inner circle and although I knew it to be farce, their exchanges caught me off guard as I began to believe Vanda's every word and knew what she was up to. It was as if I were really viewing a dream of the author as he was writing the script. These two characters are as one. His dream is the script of his desire to relive his experience of subjugation, humiliation and total domination by his aunt when he was a young boy and Vanda is more than ready to strip him of all his defenses as he completely submits to her. The denouement comes when Vanda throws the author's cell phone across the room and breaks it after she has "forced" him to call his fiancée and let her know that he is not coming home and the delicious end as Vanda makes her retreat in her dance of victory and her subject is left to his bewildered and sensual dreams. He too is victorious. Polanski's theatre wraps around us with deliberate contradictions of amusement amidst pain that cannot be denied.
Review of Venus in Fur
