Jen Casler Credit: Photo c/o Samantha Marti-Paris

An audition is an exercise in power dynamics: The actor performs, the director decides. David Ives takes that premise to extremes in his sly and sexy two-character play, “Venus in Fur,” opening at TheatreFor this weekend.

In it, a writer-director is casting the female role in his adaptation of the 1870 novel “Venus in Furs” by Leopold von Sacher-Masoch—the novel that inspired the term masochism. An unlikely candidate for the part shows up at the last minute, and from then on the tables turn. I saw this play in NYC after having sloshed through a snowstorm and watched riveted throughout, forgetting completely that my footwear was soaked.

The juicy role of the enigmatic actress won Nina Arianda a Tony in 2012; Jen Casler takes on the challenge at TheatreFor, with Robert Colwell as the beleaguered director. Stephen Bell directs.

Tickets to “Venus in Fur” running Thursdays-Sundays from Jan. 23-Feb. 9 at TheatreFor in Clearwater start at $27.

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This article appears in Jan 16-22, 2025.