She’s dressed down in black leggings, a nondescript, loose woollen jumper and footlet socks. Her hair is unbrushed and looks windswept, even though she’s actually indoors.

And she’s the sexiest thing I’ve ever seen.

Richards is draped carelessly across a giant chaise, but she’s not watching television. She’s in a rehearsal room at The Street, practising a sexually charged scene with co-star Craig Alexander for The Street’s upcoming season of Venus in Fur.

“You don’t want to take off those scratchy clothes and come cuddle?” she purrs at Alexander in a Marlene Dietrich-style German accent. “There’s room under my mink.”

If director Caroline Stacey wanted a goddess for the role of Venus’s Vanda Jordan, she certainly got one.

At 5'9'', Richards is a commanding presence; the first PhD candidate under the UC’s new 50/50 by 2030 foundation and a sucker for Chinese takeaway after a long day of rehearsing. She’s been acting in theatre and film since age six, and is mastering four separate accents to play Vanda.

I’m behind the scenes at The Street, watching Richards play the actual goddess Venus in a scene from the play, toying with co-star Craig Alexander like a sexual plaything.

And I’m mesmerised.

Like, I have that frown-while-I-bite-my-bottom-lip feeling like I’m watching something I shouldn’t be. I realise I’m never, ever, in the room when such an erotically charged conversation is occurring between two real people.

And therein lies the distinct attracion of Venus in Fur.

“The hardest part about playing Vanda is stamina,” Richards, 25, says.

“She’s this phenomenal energy, and she’s just charged the entire time - the show plays out over 90 minutes in real-time, so I have to find tiny moments where I can to recharge. It’s exhausting.”

The play’s electric script, written by David Ives and first staged by New York’s Classic Stage Company in 2010, is the kind of illicit fiction that had women glued wide-eyed to monochrome copies of Fifty Shades of Grey back when the book went viral in 2011.

Except it’s a much smarter and intriguing exploration of sadomasochsim (S&M;) - the giving or receiving of pleasure from acts involving the receipt or infliction of pain or humiliation.

The more current term for sadomasochism is BDSM, which includes the addition of ‘bondage and discipline’. A 2014 study of health and relationships in Australia, conducted by Hunter Research Foundation, found that 2 per cent of couples nationally engage regularly in BDSM.

The key to all BDSM activity is consent, and it’s a central theme in Venus in Fur.

In the play, director Thomas Novachek (Alexander) has adapted scandalous 19th century tale Venus in Furs for the stage. The play centres on a man obsessed with finding a mistress to dominate him.

Playwright Novachek wants to cash in on the success of Fifty Shades of Grey but he’s finding it hard to cast his leading lady. And then Vanda Jordan (Richards) arrives.

An unsettling audition ensues, in which Vanda openly critiques Novachek’s play, including his portrayal of its female star and his idea of “consent”.

“She would be a great champion of the current #metoo climate,” Richards says.

“It's very rare to get a character who has so much agency and who's so in control of the story.

“She's critiquing the way we tell the story and she's critiquing constantly the way that this playwright is writing the woman in his story.”

Despite its central themes of gender, power and permission, Canberrans shouldn’t expect a “heavy” night in the theatre with Venus in Fur, Richards says.

“It’s a play that’s important for everyone to be honest, because it’s enjoyable," she says.

“I think a lot of the time when we hear, ‘Oh, it’s a play about gender and power, and power dynamics, and it’s good for the #metoo movement’, a lot of people just go, ‘Not tonight, it’s too heavy’.

“But the show is, at its core, entertaining, and it’s a really enjoyable way to be able to have these conversations. It will spark conversation.”

Richards is more than a little obsessed with power as it relates to gender. Through her PhD, she’s exploring blame attribution in female heads of government “and whether or not we treat women in politics in a similar way to the way we treat men”.

“It’s funny because it actually relates to the show,” she says.

“I’m looking at the way we view women, and how a certain category of women influences how we judge them.

“For example, the purity myth. This idea that no woman will ever be corrupt, so therefore when she is corrupt we punish her more harshly.

“I’m looking at the inexorable way that stories of women have influenced our perception of women over time.”

After stumbling through an interview with the goddess Richards - I told you, I’m mesmerised - I’m taken on a tour of Venus in Fur’s set and costumes by designer Imogen Keen.

The tiny diorama of the Venus set is like an uber modern dollhouse. It’s a miniature version of a “classic” New York rehearsal space, all high loft windows (to let in the glow of the city); an industrial chic warehouse with exposed walls and a couch I just know Richards will completely own.

Venus in Fur is Keen’s 28th show as a set and costume designer for The Street.

“Part of what’s really delicious about working on this one are the transitions,” she says.

“That in a sense, it’s a fixed space, and they’re very prescribed looks, but for Vanda in particular, she kind of peels like an onion.”

Ives' script is incredibly explicit when it comes to costumes, Keen says, with Vanda’s looks ranging from a studded patent leather top and silver-studded dog collar, through to a long, white dress from the 1870s.

“There are female archetypes positioned through the work and they each have their own kind of sexual power,” Keen says.

“There’s the power to reveal or the power to hide, and they're each strong and they each tell a different story about femininity and sexuality.

“I think it’s really cleverly navigated.”

Keen is spending the next 10 days ahead of opening night working side by side with director Caroline Stacey and lighting designer Verity Hampson to bring Venus to life.

“It’s a wonderful few days where there's this very strong sense of collaborative making,” she says.

“I still get nervous on opening night, but by that time I'm completely wrung out - I'm exhausted but also very very invested.

“At that point, it’s over to Joanna and Craig to just completely own the world I’ve helped create.”

Venus in Fur, August 21-September 2, The Street. For further information and tickets, head to www.thestreet.org.au