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Venus
Suzan-Lori Parks continues her examination of black people in history and stage through the life of the so-called "Hottentot Venus," an African woman displayed semi-nude throughout Europe due to her extraordinary physiognomy; in particular, her enormous buttocks. She was befriended, bought and bedded by a doctor who advanced his scientific career through his anatomical measurements of her after her premature death.
195 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 1997
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784 people want to read
About the author
Suzan-Lori Parks
28 books240 followersSuzan-Lori Parks is an award-winning American playwright and screenwriter. She was a recipient of the MacArthur Foundation "Genius" Grant in 2001, and received the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 2002. She is married to blues musician Paul Oscher.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 91 reviews
December 21, 2018
The topic of this play is a difficult and painful one. It recounts the real-life story of Sarah Baartman, a black African women who was lured by an exploitative white business man in 1810 under false pretenses to come and work in the circus. Though Baartman was told she'd was being brought to Paris, a place where "the streets were paved with gold," as a dancer, she was instead put display in a freak show naked and in a cage. The only dancing she got to perform were movements that confirmed her status as a Venus Hottentot (a racist stereotype applied to certain sub-Saharan African women who were cast as hypersexual beings because of their large backsides).
To be sure, watching this play would be very difficult, as viewers of the play would then by proxy become observers of the Venus Hottentot. But, Lori-Parks, a Pulitzer-prize winning African-American playwright "wants" us to squirm. The point of the exercise is to bring forth needed conversations about imperialism, exploitation and race. And that, indeed, her play does.
Be forewarned, if you pick this up, that the play script is very postmodern, stylized and carnivalesque. The scenes move backwards in time, and the script contains a jeering chorus and representations of multiple explicit instances of abuse too. But, if you're schooled in how to read scripts (and if you're not cowed by things that are edgy), you'll equipped to deal with Lori-Parks' brilliance.
To be sure, watching this play would be very difficult, as viewers of the play would then by proxy become observers of the Venus Hottentot. But, Lori-Parks, a Pulitzer-prize winning African-American playwright "wants" us to squirm. The point of the exercise is to bring forth needed conversations about imperialism, exploitation and race. And that, indeed, her play does.
Be forewarned, if you pick this up, that the play script is very postmodern, stylized and carnivalesque. The scenes move backwards in time, and the script contains a jeering chorus and representations of multiple explicit instances of abuse too. But, if you're schooled in how to read scripts (and if you're not cowed by things that are edgy), you'll equipped to deal with Lori-Parks' brilliance.
January 3, 2018
Gives off a Foucauldian feel, I think; all concerned with the sciences and their discourses, medical sciences, sexology & race science, their relation to the intensities of sex and attraction, their relation to labor. The point in history when a certain breed of scientist (read: bourgeois scientist) began centering the taxonomical classification of humans around sex and race (gender, sexual features, physical features, numerically measured and all.) And how that ties into profitability, exploitation of labor by capital, the structuring of power.
But lest one think this play is dry philosophy trying to personify itself on stage, it is not. It has drama, emotion, tragedy, a real sense of movement and propulsion. It excites and bewilders, it draws the reader into its avant-garde orthography. It's a good play.
But lest one think this play is dry philosophy trying to personify itself on stage, it is not. It has drama, emotion, tragedy, a real sense of movement and propulsion. It excites and bewilders, it draws the reader into its avant-garde orthography. It's a good play.
July 24, 2022
** 5 stars **
Really excellent experimental play about Saartjie Baartman, a Black woman who was taken from southwest Africa to England in the early 19th century and exhibited in freak shows under the moniker "the Hottentot Venus." The play showcases her exploitation at the hands of different white captors while she is in England and France. She is taken advantage of for profit, for medical knowledge, and for sex during a period of several years before dying in her mid-twenties of a sexually transmitted disease (although some contemporary sources suggest she may have died of smallpox or pneumonia). Parks expertly shows Baartman's dehumanization while giving voice to her unfulfilled needs and desires.
Would highly recommend if you are interested in experimental theater, contemporary African American drama, and/or works about the effects of colonialism and capitalism on Black people.
Really excellent experimental play about Saartjie Baartman, a Black woman who was taken from southwest Africa to England in the early 19th century and exhibited in freak shows under the moniker "the Hottentot Venus." The play showcases her exploitation at the hands of different white captors while she is in England and France. She is taken advantage of for profit, for medical knowledge, and for sex during a period of several years before dying in her mid-twenties of a sexually transmitted disease (although some contemporary sources suggest she may have died of smallpox or pneumonia). Parks expertly shows Baartman's dehumanization while giving voice to her unfulfilled needs and desires.
Would highly recommend if you are interested in experimental theater, contemporary African American drama, and/or works about the effects of colonialism and capitalism on Black people.
February 21, 2024
Amazing language,
heartwrenching history, and
clever structuring.
heartwrenching history, and
clever structuring.
October 20, 2017
What the heck was that?! 😂
September 17, 2024
I always need to remind myself that I don't like reading plays, I like watching them. My personal enjoyment of it doesn't take away from how powerful the story was. It maybe felt a little strange that she chose to continue being a part of a freak show in hopes of becoming rich. It's not long but the rapid switching between times when Venus was alive and after she died made the story feel a little disjointed, but it made the whole story feel more depressing knowing she was going to die at the end (which I'm sure was the intended effect)I liked "For the Love of Venus" the play inside the play as well I thought it was very interesting. It's also very short and readable in an hour or so.
July 24, 2020
One of the most disturbing and truthfully painful plays I've ever read. I had trouble getting through it due to the disgusting objectification, sexualization and sheer manipulation that Venus Hottentot (Saartjie Bartman) endured at the hands of white spectators and doctors, but ultimately, I felt like I owed it to this historical Black female figure to let her terrible fate be known. Suzan-Lori Parks is truly a genius and I am so grateful that I now know this story. Thank you for honoring her memory.
September 21, 2015
This play made me feel both interested in and disturbed by the story of Saartjie Baartman/The Venus Hottentot. However, I felt that the absurdist, jumpy style distracted from the story instead of strengthening it.
April 6, 2017
I didn't really understand this play. Will come back to it at a later date.
March 5, 2022
4.5
So stylistically and structurally different from Topdog/Underdog, yet the voice remains. Instead of going the easy route and mining Sarah Baartman's exploitation for sentimental melodrama, Parks constructs an absurd consideration of how the things people espouse hatred against are frequently the things they most desire. How do taboos shape not just our understanding of other bodies but, also, our relationship with history and science? I mean, the lengths the doctor goes to to prove that the Venus' body is entirely removed from white physiology is scary and, in its surreal and horrifying nature, quite funny. I find it a bit disheartening to see a few other reviews here on Goodreads (even those that are positive) that describe how horrifying this past is, how scary it is that not everyone is made aware of racist history such as Baartman's caging as a freakshow spectacle and subsequent postmortem maceration and such. Parks, by including a play within a play, shows how we are complicit in this spectacle, everyone in the audience/anyone reading the play's print edition. Look at the now iconic "Break the Internet" issue of PAPER magazine with Kim Kardashian as its cover star. Look at how we systemically brutalize black bodies while commodifying black culture/a hyperbolized form of what black bodies "look like" in the hegemonic (in this case, white supremacist) consciousness. We are just renewing and rejuvenating bleak histories at all times, and Parks is willing to shine a light directly on how insane it all really looks.
So stylistically and structurally different from Topdog/Underdog, yet the voice remains. Instead of going the easy route and mining Sarah Baartman's exploitation for sentimental melodrama, Parks constructs an absurd consideration of how the things people espouse hatred against are frequently the things they most desire. How do taboos shape not just our understanding of other bodies but, also, our relationship with history and science? I mean, the lengths the doctor goes to to prove that the Venus' body is entirely removed from white physiology is scary and, in its surreal and horrifying nature, quite funny. I find it a bit disheartening to see a few other reviews here on Goodreads (even those that are positive) that describe how horrifying this past is, how scary it is that not everyone is made aware of racist history such as Baartman's caging as a freakshow spectacle and subsequent postmortem maceration and such. Parks, by including a play within a play, shows how we are complicit in this spectacle, everyone in the audience/anyone reading the play's print edition. Look at the now iconic "Break the Internet" issue of PAPER magazine with Kim Kardashian as its cover star. Look at how we systemically brutalize black bodies while commodifying black culture/a hyperbolized form of what black bodies "look like" in the hegemonic (in this case, white supremacist) consciousness. We are just renewing and rejuvenating bleak histories at all times, and Parks is willing to shine a light directly on how insane it all really looks.
May 25, 2018
Harrowing, obviously, but if you’re already familiar with the historical figure, I’m not sure it really brought anything new to the proceedings. Parks’ use of a chorus is as always, perfect, all hail our modern Sophocles.
October 11, 2024
okay this was a difficult one for me; i am not saying it is a bad play, it’s well written and suzan lori parks is a genius and gift for telling this story, it just wasn’t for me, and that’s okay!
December 10, 2024
So much to think about with this one.
September 11, 2023
I’ve never read a play before, but this was a super interesting read. The story is incredibly tragic but the author created a completely new subject out of it.
March 6, 2025
near impossible to not read through in one sitting, and it will be a longer sitting than you think, because each scene made me need a deep breath and a pause to process. part of that is the unconventional and sometimes very sparse writing style, which had me taking time to imagine what this might look like onstage. part of it is the deep tragedy which starts looming as soon as saartjie is interrupted from her work
May 20, 2016
In the play's defense, I think this is one of those pieces that has to be performed, not read.
May 13, 2025
Suzan-Lori Parks’ play “Venus” engages in the retelling and resurrection of Sarah
Baartman’s story, experimenting with how the play format serves to connect the audience to the
past and how it affects their sense of responsibility, subverting colonial ideas of history.
With the Chorus meant to reflect the audience’s position, and the Resurrectionist posed to inspire
questions on the ethics of the show, Parks uses dynamic characters to implicate the viewers.
Parks, through the interpretive space left open for differences in design, places the burden of
challenging history as distant, objective, and single-faceted on the performance. Using the
characterization of the Chorus and the Resurrectionist, Parks implicates the audience, the
performers, and herself in Venus’ story, examining the ethics of spectatorship and resurrection.
This play reveals the limitations of reconstructing women like Venus when the nature of the information comes from those who dehumanized them first. Both the audience and chorus observe Venus’s pain and are active participants at the end of her story.
The format and structure of the play are essential aspects contributing to the audience's understanding. We begin at the end of the show; we end at the beginning. Scenes jump from place to place, time to time, person to person, muddling the story in the same way the histories of women of color have been muddled. I truly believe that Parks did a fantastic job with this play and I encourage everyone to read it. The emotions it brings up (guilt, shame, anger) help us reflect on ourselves and our role in history and justice
Baartman’s story, experimenting with how the play format serves to connect the audience to the
past and how it affects their sense of responsibility, subverting colonial ideas of history.
With the Chorus meant to reflect the audience’s position, and the Resurrectionist posed to inspire
questions on the ethics of the show, Parks uses dynamic characters to implicate the viewers.
Parks, through the interpretive space left open for differences in design, places the burden of
challenging history as distant, objective, and single-faceted on the performance. Using the
characterization of the Chorus and the Resurrectionist, Parks implicates the audience, the
performers, and herself in Venus’ story, examining the ethics of spectatorship and resurrection.
This play reveals the limitations of reconstructing women like Venus when the nature of the information comes from those who dehumanized them first. Both the audience and chorus observe Venus’s pain and are active participants at the end of her story.
The format and structure of the play are essential aspects contributing to the audience's understanding. We begin at the end of the show; we end at the beginning. Scenes jump from place to place, time to time, person to person, muddling the story in the same way the histories of women of color have been muddled. I truly believe that Parks did a fantastic job with this play and I encourage everyone to read it. The emotions it brings up (guilt, shame, anger) help us reflect on ourselves and our role in history and justice
May 15, 2022
This is technically a reread, though I hadn't read the play since college. I have always remembered that I loved it, but it was nice to dive back into it almost like new and love it all over again.
Now when I say "love," that doesn't mean that so much of the content isn't uncomfortable and horrifying. But that is the point. And sadly, it is as relevant today as when it premiered in 1996. Maybe even more so when one thinks of today's Supreme Court.
But I digress.
Suzan-Lori Parks uses such grand theatricality and theatre of the absurd moments to heighten this piece of historical fiction that is not concerned so much with accuracy as it is with heightening the themes. The dialogue sings and is electric. It feels alive.
If it is this good on the page, I bet it is amazing on the stage with the right production.
I will write more about this on my blog.
Now when I say "love," that doesn't mean that so much of the content isn't uncomfortable and horrifying. But that is the point. And sadly, it is as relevant today as when it premiered in 1996. Maybe even more so when one thinks of today's Supreme Court.
But I digress.
Suzan-Lori Parks uses such grand theatricality and theatre of the absurd moments to heighten this piece of historical fiction that is not concerned so much with accuracy as it is with heightening the themes. The dialogue sings and is electric. It feels alive.
If it is this good on the page, I bet it is amazing on the stage with the right production.
I will write more about this on my blog.
March 22, 2024
i think this Baartman’s story is really interesting and is important to be discussed but i don’t love how this did that. it made the Venus complicit in her own oppression which i didn’t love. i also just don’t love reading plays and find them difficult to grasp without an audiobook or play to watch alongside and the one on youtube didn’t match up entirely to the script. idk i see why people would like this but i just didn’t love it especially for the reasons we read about in Jean Young’s article about this play and I tend to agree with young more than parks about how this character/person should be depicted and here it felt lacking in recognition of the power dynamics.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
February 12, 2020
Despite the weighty topic and unique play structure, the story was not compelling enough for me to merit more than three stars. I will say that my attention was held throughout the entire play and I was never bored. However, that may be a function of my confusion over the structure of the play. It is quite possible that I need to re-read and ruminate on this play to fully appreciate it (very likely the case)
October 29, 2022
nene feel better bo it asm alpl sorry but I have to give this book a bad review. The first part is my fault I never like them and they made me feel so sorry for the people being treat like people less then human.it broke my heart the people p oil yho ran these shows should have been boil in oil .all I can ask is that we never do this to people again. People.can be so heartless and mean maybe we can use it his as a l,wisdom for treat indifferent in a better .
à.. Be open to people..a
w
à.. Be open to people..a
w
April 28, 2024
Sobering, in a word.
Following Venus, a 'freak' by their definition due to the size of her bum, as she is lied too by many people along her journey offering her fame and riches.
It felt at times a bit disjointed to me, simply as it was switching between the present and future in a way that jarred the story. That being said, it was an interesting read to understand how these freak shows objectified and abused people, despite them being the ones bringing in the finance and customers.
Following Venus, a 'freak' by their definition due to the size of her bum, as she is lied too by many people along her journey offering her fame and riches.
It felt at times a bit disjointed to me, simply as it was switching between the present and future in a way that jarred the story. That being said, it was an interesting read to understand how these freak shows objectified and abused people, despite them being the ones bringing in the finance and customers.
March 26, 2018
The inspiration of the story is barbaric; a reminder of the bullying that adults will partake in to for the sake of profit and entertainment. The real life story is brutal enough; the Absurdism just hinders the telling. The charade surrounding the performance is reminiscent of William Beaumont's and St. Martin's (the man with the open stomach) tour around the country.
November 2, 2022
4.5 stars. I really enjoyed this play. It was a raw telling of a woman sold into slavery and used for her body. It was sad, but it was real. I don’t think I could teach it in a high school but I really learned from the reading. There was a lot that I didn’t understand while reading, but want to, so hopefully class discussion will deepen my comprehension.
January 31, 2023
Quotes:
"The Uncle:
Young Man, she says shes Love.
The Young Man:
Whisper, ask her, if shes wild."
"The Chorus of the Court:
Who are you?
Where are you from?
Any Family?
Are you happy?
Are you a witch?
Were you ever beaten?
Did you like it was it good?
Do you wanna go home?
If so, when?! If so, when?!"
"The Uncle:
Young Man, she says shes Love.
The Young Man:
Whisper, ask her, if shes wild."
"The Chorus of the Court:
Who are you?
Where are you from?
Any Family?
Are you happy?
Are you a witch?
Were you ever beaten?
Did you like it was it good?
Do you wanna go home?
If so, when?! If so, when?!"
October 7, 2023
Had to read this play for school and it was one of the most disturbing but interesting one.
It recalls the true story of Saartjie (Sarah) Baartman who was put in a kind of Freak Show and became « The Venus Hottentot » because of her anatomy…
I kind of knew her story but not really in detail and this book made me realise how insane her story is.
It recalls the true story of Saartjie (Sarah) Baartman who was put in a kind of Freak Show and became « The Venus Hottentot » because of her anatomy…
I kind of knew her story but not really in detail and this book made me realise how insane her story is.
June 1, 2025
She once handed my man a feather from her head.
Theyre said to bring good luck.
“A fight ensued. 3 men died. Uh little boy went mad. Uh woman lost her child.”
My man escaped with thuh feather intact.
But thuh shock of her killed him, I think, cause 2 days later he was dead.
Ive thrown thuh feather away.
Theyre said to bring good luck.
“A fight ensued. 3 men died. Uh little boy went mad. Uh woman lost her child.”
My man escaped with thuh feather intact.
But thuh shock of her killed him, I think, cause 2 days later he was dead.
Ive thrown thuh feather away.
July 30, 2017
It's so disgusting what happened to this woman. The more I read the more I understand why we are told to get over, or forget about black history. It's impossible to read these atrocities w/o looking at the people who committed them.
October 2, 2017
So i’m realizing that non-traditional structure in plays isn’t really my thing. I would’ve liked this much more if i were seeing it live because just reading it was like of confusing, even though Suzan-Lori Parks is an amazing playwright.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 91 reviews