Zainab Jah, who made an impressive Broadway debut as a sex slave turned soldier in Eclipsed, is back on a New York stage with another vivid portrayal of an exploited but strong African woman in Venus. Her performance is the best thing about director Lear deBessonet’s highly stylized, colorfully designed revival of this 1996 play by Suzan-Lori Parks — part of Signature Theater’s year-long look back at the work of the Pulitzer-winning playwright of Topdog/Underdog that began in November with The Death of the Last Black Man in the Whole Entire World.
Full review on DC Theatre Scene
Click on any photograph by Joan Marcus to see it enlarged
Zanab Jah as Venus at Signature
Venus is a play based on the true story of an early 19th century woman from Africa who was exhibited in freak shows in Europe. The very first thing we see on stage is the character/actress putting on a nude body suit, with the aid of a man dressed like a circus ringmaster. Then she poses for us, “naked” save for a scant loin cloth. The unspoken question: Are we, the spectators in 2017, all that different from the ones who paid two shillings in 1810? Opened in May
John Ellison Coulee and Zainab Jah
Kevin Mambo
Tony Torn, center
V
Buy Venus
Father Comes Home From the Wars (Parts 1, 2 & 3)
