Writer: William Shakespeare
Director: David Salter
What do you do if you’re a scriptwriter and a plague has shut all the theatres? If you’re Shakespeare, you write an epic poem, have it printed and establish your name in the literary world.
Venus and Adonis is the work that truly launched Shakespeare’s fame in his lifetime, being regularly reprinted before the reading public switched to his plays. Christopher Hunter first developed his one-man performance of the poem in 2017 at the Edinburgh Fringe and has now brought it to the Riverside Theatre before taking it to the Verona Shakespeare Festival.
The poem is about the goddess Venus’s attraction to the young man, Adonis. She tries to seduce him with every weapon in her arsenal but he’s just not that into her. The next day he goes hunting, and Venus has had a vision of his death by wild boar…
The piece starts quietly, with Hunter in a conservative suit, sitting on a bench with an open briefcase, scribbling notes. As the poem begins, he reads from the notes as if he is Shakespeare composing the poem, before he morphs into the characters.
His Venus is strange and unnerving. Her feminine wiles translate into a peculiarly aggressive form of camp; sulking and pouting in a way that feels gross and manipulative. Shakespeare’s skill as a writer means that Venus’s lines are beautiful on the page, but put into Hunter’s sinewy movement and purring voice, they become threats as much as enticements. The more his Venus tries to seduce, the more off-putting she is.
Adonis, who many have read as a fool for turning down the divine embodiment of erotic love, may actually have a point. He knows he’s not old enough for such knowledge and simply wants to go hunting. With Venus portrayed as aggressive and relentless as she is here, it feels right for him to be disgusted by her “overhanded theme”. The sexes may be flipped but the power imbalance of goddess and mortal evoke every story we’ve heard of sexual power abuse from #MeToo on.
Shakespeare, presumably aware that this poem would make his mark, is going full Shakespeare. He puns, he twists, he makes committed and absurd metaphors that only work when he makes them. The poem builds up to a crescendo of ‘melodious discord’ and Hunter rides it well. Hunter also shapes the poem, with variations of costume, position on stage, tempo and tone of voice, making each part clear and no part washing over the audience.
There is absurdity in watching a man put on lipstick to seduce himself, or prancing like a randy pony but that absurdity feeds into the disquieting nature of the piece. Venus and Adonis brings the audience a Shakespeare who is strange, seductive and dangerous, making this a real contrast to a safe, outdoor Midsummer Night’s Dream.
Runs until 21 May 2023
The Reviews Hub Score
Seductive and Dangerous
