Performances by:

Glenn Hall
Ian Mozdzen
Mia van Leeuwen Directed & Adapted by Ian Mozdzen

Director’s note:

S&M began (innocently enough) in the Fall 2002 at the UofW while I was enrolled in a class devoted to the art of Directing taught by Shelagh Carter and a class devoted to ensemble theatre taught by Claire Borody. In the Directing class, we were to adapt and stage a short story. I chose Kafka’s parable, “Before the Law,” because it seemed able to carry many issues, one of which became the role of the director and his relationship with his actors, an issue Borody compelled us to redefine, and (ultimately) an issue upon which Carter and I disagreed.

My ongoing research of Masoch’s erotic novel Venus in Furs and the sexual perversion named after him (Masochism) inspired me to fit a Masochistic scenario into Kafka’s vision of the Law. I also drew upon my studies of John Keats’ (perverse) poetry to bolster Masoch’s romantic manner and Jean Cocteau’s films to inform the stage action’s sensibility. Mia and Glenn (of Borody’s class) were kind enough to volunteer, and 2 months later Before the Law was presented.

The project’s challenges and potential made it compelling for Fringe. And as luck would have it (or us), I had contemplated a Sadeian counterpart for the Masochistic “Before the Law.” With its creation, the title’s appropriateness became questionable; no longer was the piece focused upon Kafka and Masoch, but upon Sade and Masoch, face to face, as unique artistic/pornographic visionaries. Thus, the show was “christened” with the (provocative) title S&M -- pushing us into daring regions: pornography, erotic literature and comics, Winnipeg’s Black&Blue Ball, a documentary on a domination house, “Pandora’s Box,” in N.Y. City, and the “sadistic” prisoner humiliations in Iraq.

Like Humpty-Dumpty, the “sadomasochist” has been broken into pieces (S&M) without (much) hope of being put back together again. And we don’t want to put them together; by revisioning Sade and Masoch, their names, art, and history no longer eclipse each other.

The First and Second Acts are based upon Franz Kafka’s parable, “Before the Law,” the story of a man who devotes his life to begging a Doorkeeper to grant him admittance to the Law. He is never admitted and dies trying. S&M, named after the abbreviation of that strange entity, the sadomasochist, is a play(ing) of Kafka’s parable in the (ill) manners of the Marquis de Sade and Leopold von Sacher-Masoch. S&M is a showcase for these notoriously perverted artists and their flirtations with love, lust, and the Law. Face two neurotic/erotic faces, face to face. Faced with Masoch, you will see how a clumsy, but charming man convinces a beautiful woman to beat and humiliate him. Faced with Sade, you will see how a filthy monk has his nasty ways with a reluctant whore. However, the spectre/spectator of S&M looms over both, providing endings which are ... well, you’ll find out. It’s quite shocking.

Do not worry ... it’s for (your) pleasure only.