The play, Venus was written in (1996) and it is a pseudo-historical drama

written by Suzan-Lori Parks in the play, Parks portrayed a lady in South African
who was tempted to go to England by empty promises of success only to be
sold into slavery and later taken as a sideshow attraction in
England. Due to her protrusive posterior, she appeared on
public stage to display this pathophysiological abnormality
in her body.
1. In what way(s) is the playwright presenting an anti-world? And do they do this via a
type of uncanny exposure?
In her play, Suzan Lori-Parks bases the plot play in real historical facts. She does not
accurately depict those facts, she uses them and manipulates them as the basis upon
she builds an anti-world that mirrors the real world in a distorted way; She exposes the
inhumane behavior towards the African American protagonist, her objectification by
underlining the real event of her being objectified, treated, and used for profit as a
circus freak by locating on a revolving mechanism on stage.
The story starts to unfold through loud announcements punctuated with exclamation
points. The first one to be announced is the protagonist which is already presented as
an exhibition item in front of the audience.
Afterwards it is time for the rest of the characters of the play to be announced; Lori-
Parks has given them names that describe their roles/parts/dramatic function to the
story. Also, demonstratively enough, she uses words like Negro or Resurrectionist,
words with significant historic context in the international collective conscious.

2. How is the piece self-referential or celebratory of its medium/artificiality?

The play is characterized by its musical form combined with vaudeville, cabarets and
variation shows’ attributes. All those entertainment forms manifest from the beginning
of the play.
The Negro Resurrectionist serves as a “Caubert”, announcing Venus as the main exhibit
exhibit amongst other showpieces that are celebrated in a circus-like atmosphere. Just
like Venus, the rest of the cast is also announced and announcing each other underlining
the representative intention of the play, away from any form of mimesis or realism for
that matter.

3. Can you attach any of the dialogic terms to the play?

 Nontraditional plot structure – The crisis is not build up with the purpose of resolution
and eventually a form of katharsis in the end. The end of the story, the death of Venus,
is also the introduction to the story.
 The audience’s attention is guided to the structural movements and mechanisms of the
story. Not only the roles announce themselves as roles and not as dramatis personae,
but also stage directions are uttered and executed in front of the audience’s eyes. Non-
 semantic language is also used as regular prose for the sake of the virtuosity of acting
based on context, or no text at all; an element which also creates the estrangement
effect.
 Attention is drawn to the mechanisms of theater instead of them being concealed, i.e.
when the narrator “The Negro Resurrectionist” identifies which scene is going to be
performed next: “Scene 19: A Scene of Love”

 The characters are not necessarily coherent can exceed what the play’s theme might be
and the protagonist, the Venus and her different depictions within the scenes, she is not
only the protagonist, she becomes a narrator herself of her story and historical facts
too; also an interesting attribute of the dialectic theater that is put into practice.
 An anti-world is created based on the real world, not only because the story derives
from a historical fact, but also because of the constant connection to other various
historical facts that are included in the play. This intertextuality prevents the audience
from being carried away by the grotesque aesthetics in the play perceiving it as a
grotesque fairytale.
 The use of language is not literal neither noncanonical. Letters and non-sematic parts of
language are used as expressive tools in the service of the story and the show. i.e the
chorus goes “huba, huba huba huba” to violently express the primal instincts that the
entrapped Venus provokes to all those that visit her cage. The virtuosity of the writer in
this case is evident and is thematized. It is also part of a unique glossary that Lori-Parks
creates in all of her plays, not only within the plays; this unique language can be found
in her stage directions too : quote from her notes : ‘’ I’m continuing the use of my
slightly unconventional theatrical elements. Here’s a road map: (Rest) Take a little time,
apause, a breather, make a transition, A Spell: An elongated and heightened Rest”

4. How does the play's precursor illuminate/make way/impact/open up possibilities for

the Suzan-Lori Parks play? 
Precursor’s theme is a reflection upon society’s double standards concerning white and
African American women. It is a black or white world in both plays.
The nontraditional plot structure is also an attribute than connects the two plays.
They both contain narrators from another form of entairtainment. Columbia Pictures
lady and the ”Negro Resurrectionist” .
Women are depicted as failed angels not by their own fault, not by their lack of
endeavour; their failure to live freely in their own terms is a lost battle in both plays
because the discriminative society dictates so .
In Adrienne Kennedy’s, A Movie Star Has to Star in Black and White  the
Locations/scenes = movie sets whereas in Parks the set often implies a play within the
play while there are moments where South Africa is represented on stage.
5. What are your thoughts on the audience's relationship with the dialogic play?
Brings the audience before its uncomfortable history. Brings the audience in touch with
their ancestors’ history of cruelty towards African-American women. Addresses the
audience as part of a sick performance, as if it was the same audience that has come to
watch an African American woman as a showpiece, an entrapped zoo animal.
Thus, the audience exists within two timelines. They are the spectators of a show,
presenting Lori-Parks’ play Venus and at the same time they serve as the audience of
the spectacle that exists within the play; The show becomes a shared project, a piece a
dialogic theater.
The audience’s significance as an important part of the plot is also marked within the
cast; the chorus of the Spectators is one of the dramatis personae of the play.
When the N* Resurrectionist announces that the ‘’Venus Hottentot iz dead”, he
addresses people on and off stage as both the fictional spectators and the real ones are
here for the show tonight. A show that according to him won’t be happening. It is a case
of theater within the theater.