With Belle Du Jour a literary phenomenon and more and more women modelling themselves on the porn industrys feminine ideal, it is the perfect moment for a play about the lives and lovers of historys most celebrated courtesans. Venus has brought back to life five of her most valued representatives for just one evening: Nell Gwyn, orange-seller turned Kings top mistress, Veronica Franco a 16th century poet-courtesan, Tzu-Hsi the concubine cum dictator, Cora Pearl the erotic delight of 18th century Paris and Skittles, a Victorian dominatrix. All tell their own tales, dressed appropriately to their profession. Starting with a screeching Venus, the play can only improve, and it does. The women take it in turns to stride the stage, boasting about their skills. Emma Kate Baxter is reserved and elegant as Veronica Franco, who escaped being burnt to death by the inquisition because her influential lovers stepped in on her behalf. T-zu-Hsi (Ava Lyn Koh) is a forceful presence on stage, uninhibited by the fact that all she is wearing is a single red ribbon. Her sharp voice too is a relief from the single tone of some of the other actresses, whose breathiness and purposeful pauses dont make them sexy, just annoying. Nell Gwyn (Georgina Panton) also escapes this trap: her cockney voice and bouncy stage presence are enlivening, unlike the heavy-footed movements of the seductive actresses. The script is baggy and far too long it could have been cut by half. After the stories of the five women, I wondered how they would drag the play on for another 40 minutes. It descends into repetition and squabbling. However, it is here that the meaty questions are asked: whether these women actually enjoyed what they did, if glamorising prostitution is a good thing, and whether women in modern society have a positive choice over their own sexual habits and bodies. Mostly though these issues are skimmed over, undermined by a saucy pun or simply left hanging. A gratuitous lesbian make-out session takes place, they all talk about how revered and envied they were in their own time, and everyone strokes themselves as they speak. This is far too often the standard action accompanying the womens speeches, as well as lip-licking, sitting spread-legged and flicking their hair. This could be fine, but it is overused and gives the characters a unity of tone and action that is dull and clichéd. This show cant decide if it wants to be a play about female empowerment or a titillating late-night burlesque show for the intellectual gentleman. It doesnt fully manage either.
