According to Studio notes, " Inspired by Leopold von Sacher-Masoch's notorious erotic novel (which first shocked readers in 1870), Venus in Fur explores the complex relationship between sex and power. Reality and fantasy, strength and weakness, and pleasure and pain all blend together in one of the smartest and funniest plays to emerge in recent years." Casting and creative team will be announced.

Ives was born in Chicago and educated at Northwestern University and Yale School of Drama. A former Guggenheim Foundation Fellow in playwriting, he is probably best known for his evenings of one-act comedies. His short plays are collected in two anthologies, "All in the Timing" (Vintage) and "Time Flies" (Grove). His full-length theatre works are available in "Polish Jokes and Other Plays" (Grove). He is also the author of two young-adult novels, "Monsieur Eek" and "Scrib." His adaptations include Georges Feydeau's classic French farce A Flea in Her Ear for which he won a Jefferson Award for Best Adaptation and a Prince Prize for New Work, and Pierre Corneille's The Liar, seen recently at The Shakespeare Theatre Company. He lives in New York City, where he has penned many concert adaptations of classic musicals for the Encores! series.

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