Venus

If you think about it, intermission has always been an opportunity for the audience to take a breather - to allow theatergoers to stretch, get a drink, chat. To switch off temporarily. And that's the very last thing that Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Suzan-Lori Parks wants them to do. It's not that she ignores the great theatrical law that a comfortable audience is a more receptive audience. But the whole notion that a play is what happens in the breaks between the rest of your life rubs Parks the wrong way. "A play is a living thing," Parks says over the phone from her home in Venice Beach, Calif.

Suzan-Lori Parks writes challenging plays filled with poetry, politics and history. Until now, Baltimore hasn't had a chance to see her work. But AXIS Theatre has corrected that oversight with an intriguing production of Parks' boldly theatrical "Venus." The 1996 play is loosely based on the true story of Saartjie Baartman, an African woman with enormous buttocks who was exhibited Elephant Man-style in England in the early 19th century as the Venus Hottentot. Parks tells Venus' story in flashback, beginning with the announcement of her death and interspersing the narrative with historical and medical passages read by a character called the Negro Resurrectionist (a reference to his former occupation of digging up corpses for medical studies)

In Venus, Peter O'Toole's eyes still glitter with curiosity despite a body that's near-cadaverous and a face that's unnervingly skull-like. And that curiosity mingles splendidly with arousal when his character, the aging British actor Maurice Russell, claps those orbs on a sullen, barely literate teenager named Jessie (Jodie Whittaker). Maurice responds at once to the banked energy that some adolescents exude simply lolling on the sofa. Jessie responds in her own slow and surly way to his appreciation.

WIMBLEDON, England - This was about family power and tennis glory, a father's dream to create two champions and a sporting moment as rare and pure as Wimbledon gets. The Williams sisters stormed into Wimbledon's semifinals yesterday. They didn't just take over a tournament on the Fourth of July. They took charge of a sport, just like their father said they would, using rackets, spirit and burgeoning tennis savvy. Serena Williams crushed Lisa Raymond, 6-2, 6-0, and then dashed to Centre Court to see her sister, Venus, finish off Martina Hingis, 6-3, 4-6, 6-4, in a classic confrontation that ended with a service ace, high-pitched shout and family celebration under a bleak summer sky. And the best is yet to come.

NEW YORK - -Serena Williams took only 53 minutes and committed only nine unforced errors in her 6-1, 6-1 second-round victory over 51st-ranked Melinda Czink of Hungary. It was an emphatic win, and it prompted Serena to do a little happy dance when it was over. That was in contrast to earlier in the day, when Venus Williams played her second-round match with her left knee heavily taped. That didn't stop third-seeded Venus from dispatching 124th-ranked Bethanie Mattek-Sands, 6-4, 6-2, and moving closer to an anticipated fourth-round encounter with 2005 Open champion Kim Clijsters.

NEW YORK - With her straight-set championship victory last night at the 2002 U.S. Open, Serena Williams further helped solidify her savvy but eccentric father's status as a prophet for all the sporting ages. Richard Williams said older sister Venus would wow the world when she took the court for her first pro tournament in Oakland, Calif., at age 14. Check. He said younger sister Serena would soon follow and together, Venus and Serena would dominate the tour by raising the bar on women's tennis and taking home all the sterling silver hardware and prize money.

With a little luck, scientists and engineers at the Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt will help to send a NASA spacecraft to land on an asteroid or on Venus late in this decade. The two proposed interplanetary missions with Goddard connections were among three selected Monday to receive $3.3 million each for further cost and feasibility study under NASA's New Frontiers program. Only one will be funded after a final cut later this year. The winning mission would have to launch by 2018, and cost less than $650 million.

WIMBLEDON, England - Venus Williams reported to Wimbledon two weeks ago enduring some serious questions about her tennis motivation after four consecutive losses to her younger sister in Grand Slam finals. No one, however, could possibly doubt her courage after the brave performance she put on yesterday afternoon, subverting the pain of a persistent abdominal muscle pull to come from behind to defeat Kim Clijsters, 4-6, 6-3, 6-1, and reach the Wimbledon final for the fourth time in a row. She was bubbling over with joy after this victory, talking nonstop about her inability to just calm down and get everything under control, though a one-hour rain delay after the second set helped.

NEW YORK - It was like night and day watching Venus and Serena Williams sweep into the round of 16 at the U.S. Open yesterday. Venus, playing at night, looked strong against Daniela Hantuchova in winning her 10th consecutive Grand Slam match, Serena, in the daytime, struggled against a stiff wind and the spins and slices of veteran Italian Francesca Schiavone. After three magnificent efforts, Venus ought to be a heavy favorite when the sisters meet tomorrow for the 14th time, dating to the 1998 Australian Open.

NEW YORK - The Williams sisters have played these formless slugfests before, but this one, the 14th in a series that long ago lost its novelty, was particularly flat. If there was one surprise yesterday, it was that Serena Williams, still several miles from working herself back to championship fitness, had a set point in this 7-6 (5), 6-2 loss to her older sister. Everything else was as predictable as a metronome. Big hits followed by big misses followed by power grunts followed by Serena's shrieks of frustration.