For his newest production, theater director Josh Moyse has been shopping online for costume pieces. Finally, he found what he needed. “The dog collar just came in the mail today,” he tells me by phone, “and I’m really excited about it.”

That leather dog collar will go around the neck of actor Xoe Perra. Without it, rehearsals for Venus in Fur just aren’t complete.

“I think what we’ve found so far is good,” Moyse says. “The leather top and skirt are there, the garters are there, the collar is there. The costumes are really important, and in Brattleboro no one really sells anything that we need.”

That’s a pretty good indication that this play, produced by Moyse’s company, Shoot the Moon, will be something that many residents of this small Vermont arts town haven’t seen before. Written by the very funny American playwright David Ives, Venus in Fur takes place over one strange night in an empty rehearsal room in New York City. There are only two characters: Thomas, a theater director holding auditions for his new play, and Vanda, an actress who shows up for a chance to land a role.

On the surface, it’s a play about the theater industry. But five minutes into the show, audiences will realize that it’s really a dark comedy about sex and power, packed with mysterious plot twists. When the play ran off-Broadway in 2010 and on Broadway in 2011, it quickly became a runaway hit. The New York Times summed it up as “90 minutes of good, kinky fun.” No wonder it sold well.

But what about in Brattleboro, population 12,000? Will locals buy tickets to see two performers play out an erotic cat-and-mouse game that, ultimately, blends reality with magical allusions to a classic erotic novel by Leopold von Sacher-Masoch, the progenitor of BDSM?

Moyse hopes so. “The play attracted me because I don’t think local theatre is going to be doing this play very often. It’s a very sexy show, and being not-very-clothed for an hour and a half isn’t something that a lot of community theater actors are used to.”

Typically, community theatres are platforms for amateur actors to perform for the sake of passion rather than pay. Shoot the Moon, on the other hand, wants to take local theater to the next step, offering paid work and striving to produce shows that are more provocative and unusual.

That requires attracting performers that really want to improve their craft. For the part of Vanda, Moyse cast local actor Perra, whom he had directed in a production of Dracula this past fall. “She’s young and serious,” he says.

The fact that she has worked as a burlesque dancer didn’t hurt her case, either.

“I’m not shy anymore,” Perra tells me. “Anything I’m wearing on stage here, I’ve done worse. That’s confidence that I built up from working at a burlesque club. Some people think burlesque is objectification, but I don’t see or feel it like that at all. I find it incredibly empowering.”

It’s a different experience, of course, to have another person onstage alongside you — something that doesn’t often happen when performing burlesque. Still, Perra is finding rehearsals with Will Howell — an actor she only recently met and has not worked with previously — to be comfortable and easy.

What makes this possible, and keeps the show interesting, is that “we’re both in power positions throughout the show. In some moments, I’m really dominating. In some moments, it’s him. There’s a balance there that keeps shifting. It’s a crazy, weird show, and it’s really interesting to see how it all ends up.”

Howell has been having great fun in rehearsal as well. “It’s such a smart play, super witty and funny,” he says. “With some shows you get stuck in a heady theatrical mode, but this play speaks to a lot of issues we face all the time, and Ives does it in an exciting, sensual way.”

Issues like what? “The perceptions and expectations that men and women have of each other,” Howell says. “We all make assumptions. At the top of the show, Thomas is despairing because he thinks he’ll never find the right woman for this role he’s written, and he doesn’t think Vanda can do it. What happens from there highlights his misconceptions.”

And it happens at high-speed too, with no intermission and no pauses for scene changes. Both actors remain onstage the whole time. Between the two of them: 76 pages of memorized text. Plus, there’s that whole cat-and-mouse game of power and control. Quite a lot to pull off with just a few weeks’ rehearsal.

“It definitely tests our stamina,” says Howell. “It’s a show that builds up momentum quick and doesn’t let up.”

Still, Perra and Howell are finding their way into a working relationship, which can be tricky when scenes call for some real physical contact in various states of undress. Sexual chemistry can’t be faked, and if rehearsals strain the newborn intimacy that Perra and Howell are feeling out, the whole house of cards can come toppling down.

It’s Moyse’s job to make sure that doesn’t happen. “I’m kind of a broken record about this, at every step,” he says. “We’ve talked from day one about not doing anything in rehearsal that people aren’t comfortable with. Our stage manager is there, and I’m always making sure there’s at least three people in the room. It’s supposed to be a fun process, but it can’t devolve into something silly.”

Pulling off Venus in Fur’s unique sense of humor — by turns awkward, flirtatious, and outrageous — takes real skill. It also requires an audience to enliven the space. For Shoot the Moon, the venue is the 85-seat Hooker-Dunham Theater and Gallery on Main Street. This show kicks off a new residency, with Shoot the Moon producing two additional shows here later in 2016: an original piece entitled Cameo, inspired by the films of Alfred Hitchcock, and a Halloween show based on the stories of H.P. Lovecraft.

“Not every show will work in this space,” Moyse says. It’s got kind of a subterranean vibe. But it’s intimate, and the audience is really near to the stage.”

Venus in Fur is a play about theatre, yes, but it’s many other things: dark, mysterious, and self-reflective. It’s a Valentine’s-season show that shatters a portrait of traditional romance into a thousand sharp edges. Perfect, then, for the more curious theatergoers of Brattleboro to sit up close and personal.•

Contact Hunter Styles at hstyles@valleyadvocate.com.