It is also an essential one. And in Company One's production at the Boston Center for the Arts, directed with acuity and grace by Summer L. Williams, it is receiving the staging it deserves. At times frightening, at times moving, and at times startlingly funny, this "Voyeurs de Venus" is never less than riveting to watch.
The "Venus" of the title is a Khoisan woman from southwest Africa named Saartjie Baartman, who early in the 19th century was exhibited in London and Paris as the "Hottentot Venus." She would stand, naked and caged, as Europeans gawked at what, to them, was her unusual anatomy. This exploitation continued even after her death; Baartman's dissected genitalia - and a wax mold of her buttocks - remained on display in a French museum until just a few years ago, when her remains were finally repatriated and given a proper burial.
Diamond presents all these facts through the lens of another woman, her own fictional creation. Sara Washington is a contemporary black scholar, a rising star in anthropology who secures a major book deal to write a novel about Baartman - then finds herself struggling with history, her publisher (who becomes her lover), and her own doubts as she delves into Baartman's story.
By repeating the most horrific aspects of the tale, is she only contributing to further exploitation of a dead woman? Are her motives contaminated by ambition, academic or otherwise? Does presenting racist images, even in order to deplore them, only perpetuate stereotypes that were better forgotten? In short, by examining the "voyeurs," is she merely joining their ranks?
Sara wrestles with all these questions - and so, of course, does Diamond, as her play engages in the same issues the characters face. Heck, it doesn't just engage in them; it embodies them, bringing them to life on the stage in front of us - and thus turning us into voyeurs and participants as well.
