Venus in Fur, by David Ives
This production of “Venus in Fur” was nominated for Three Critics Circle Awards, including best actress, selected for best director, drama, and actress by the SDGLN, and was listed as one of the best productions in 2013 by Broadway World.
“Kinsolving gives a tour de force performance as Vanda/Wanda. She’s brassy, ballsy and amusingly awkward as the modern-day actress, but refined and intriguing as the 19th century novel heroine. And she’s got some mad, gravity- defying pole-dance skills as the taunting Venus.”
– UT San Diego
“…Caroline Kinsolving turns in tours de force characterizations, providing some of the year’s top acting. With admirable chemistry, they are by turns reserved, enticing, erotic, athletic and—utterly without respite—as fascinating and watchable as Ives’ concept…Although both Meek and Kinsolving enjoy careers in film and television, each seems devoted to stage work as well…His perfect foil, the utterly fearless and gorgeous Kinsolving makes her Rep debut as Vanda.”
– SD Uptown News
“Caroline Kinsolving has been terrific before, her performance as Jennie Malone in Neil Simon’s Chapter Two having won her a Memorable Lead Performance Scenie, but her previous work pales in comparison to her out-and-out brilliance as Vanda, a role which won its originator Nina Aranda the Tony and could well score Kinsolving similar honors when San Diego award season rolls around. Essentially playing two very different roles in a single play, Kinsolving’s transformation from 2013 Vanda to her 1870 namesake (and back and forth again and again) is absolutely stunning. I can only imagine how many actresses Kinsolving beat out for the role(s) of Vanda. Her revelatory work makes it no wonder she got the part(s).”
– Stage Scene LA
From her first entrance, Kinsolving owns the stage. She’s smart, freely sexy, and, even more to the point, relentlessly spontaneous. She flits from empyrean to bumpkin and to comedian (as when she says, “You don’t have to tell me about sadomasochism. I’m in the theater”). Kinsolving steals the show…”
– San Diego Reader
“The San Diego Rep may have mirrored Thomas’s search for a young woman able to play dumb as mud, then leap tall buildings at a single bound. She must flip styles, from extreme contemporary to classical and back: the one requiring the elasticity of a gymnast, the other grave, from the neck up formality, having only words to vent her passions. And the gymnast? She must shimmy up a metal pole, like a balletic Marine, and do a routine worthy of Cirque du Soleil. Enter Caroline Kinsolving. Oh my WORD! Who? Where’s she been?”
Caroline Kinsolving delivers an astounding performance—she instantly transforms from the gutter mouthed actress to the classy Victorian time after time, stunning the audience with her stage presence and command. She is sexy, seductive, trashy, manipulative and engrossing. It’s a performance for the ages.”
– Stage Happenings
“We do know though, that Caroline Kinsolving is an enchanting and alluring actress who can transform herself from a savvy street fighter into the dignified Vanda von Danayev tempting her prey into her den on the turn of a dime. She can memorize an entire script that she supposedly just got her hands on and glanced at on the subway ride to the audition. Sex exudes from her every pore, look and stance. Her performance is charming, effortless and seducing.”
– EXAMINER
“But Venus, ruler of grace, charm and beauty (not to mention love and money), owns this play, despite Vanda’s contention that it’s really the slave that commands. Fortunately, Meek gets out of the way and Kinsolving is not shy about taking over. She is a pleasure to watch – both beautiful and a fine actress who can switch centuries in a trice, with accents, vocabulary and postures to match.”
– SDGLN
Private Lives, by Noel Coward
A Back Stage Critic’s Pick
“Major kudos to the cast, starting with lead Caroline Kinsolving, who plays still-infatuated Amanda as though to the manner born. Kinsolving is especially adroit at physical comedy and commanding a vocal dynamic that runs the gamut from clarinet-like subtlety to bassoon-sounding octave drops.”
– Backstage
“…an arresting Caroline Kinsolving… brings humanity to the text without neglecting the gleefully frivolous comedy that comes with playing a stock role.”
– LA Weekly
“I have seen other productions of this play with the role of Amanda played by Tammy Grimes, Maggie Smith, and Elizabeth Taylor. It is a role than an actress dreams of playing. Here, Amanda is played by Caroline Kinsolving in a performance that more than holds up against the previously mentioned ladies. You can see what Amanda is thinking in every moment in Kinsolving’s performance.”
– Golden News Review
Chapter Two, by Neil Simon:
“As Jennie, Caroline Kinsolving strikes the right balance between strong-willed self-sufficiency and being so supportive and nurturing… Kinsolving delivers the play’s most impassioned—and memorable—speech.”
– BACKSTAGE
“an outstanding cast, headed by Caroline Kinsolving as a young divorcee. Each scene captures the essence of loneliness giving way to openness.”
– LA WEEKLY