Word: venusized
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...Club Venus...
...Club Venus is student-written, and it displays moments of the awkward staging and unconvincing dialogue which one would expect from this type of production. But this play is stuffed with enough candor, vigorous acting and insight to more than compensate for any imperfection in expression...
...Club Venus chronicles the Japanese sojourn of Anne (Cara Polites), a Harvard student who works as a hostess in the semi-reputable bar owned by Ono (Michelle Banyas). Rich Tokyo businessmen escape the tedium of their domestic lives at Club Venus; for a fee they can drink, tell bad jokes, and revel in the company of beautiful women...
While the men know exactly what to expect at Venus, Anne does not. She initially hopes to sample native culture and improve her Japanese. Although Anne does gradually adopt local mannerisms, she can never elude her foreign identity; the Japanese discuss her in the third person and dismiss her idiosyncracies as "typically American...
...Club Venus has several serious and disruptive technical problems. Most scenes are fragmented and terminated with such inexplicable abandon that we laugh in nervous exasperation, and the several scenes featuring Japanese and Caucasian puppets are superfluous. And an unannounced intermission resulted in the departure of several audience members...