Venus in Fur

I do not generally make it a habit of buying scripts or books for the productions I see.  Those who know me know that I collect posters as visual reminders of these productions (unless they're really bad), but scripts are another thing.  I buy scripts when I think I have missed something in the sheer density, intensity, and rapture of seeing a production.  David Ives' Venus in Fur is one of those productions.
It's described as "A Power Play" and I think that is one of the most perfectly accurate descriptions of a show I have ever read.  It centers on the audition interaction of Vanda and Thomas as she auditions for the female part in his adaptation of Sader-Masoch's Venus in Furs.  The book itself is also hard to describe, but suffice it to say that the term "Sado-Masochism" comes from this author's name.  Of course that statement suggests that the play (and the play-within-the-play) is SM porn, as the character Vanda suggests.  It's not. It's so much more than that.  The only way to describe it it's as a power play, a play about power. 
I don't really want to say any more than that because, in my mind, part of the joy of the show it not knowing what to expect; but I will direct you to "Did He Like It?" . It says everything I want to.