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To write a play about the experiences of contemporary women, asking them to share their feelings about their genitalia, invites controversy, even without titling it "The Vagina Monologues." V-Day ‘Monologues’
a victory for womenBy John Berger
Special to the Star-BulletinEve Ensler had interviewed several hundred women from as broad a spectrum of American society as possible and then developed their comments and her own observations into an uncompromising look at how women feel about that most uniquely feminine part of their bodies and about their experiences as women.
Since the one-woman show debuted five years ago, it has been called everything from liberating and thought-provoking to raunchy and offensive. It has also become a contemporary phenomenon with trios of celebrities such Gina Gershon, Rita Moreno, Alanis Morissette, Marlo Thomas, Diahann Carroll, Teri Garr, Marisa Tomei, Nell Carter, Rosie Perez or Calista Flockhart dividing the material among themselves to present "The Vagina Monologues" in a number of three-woman performance.
ON STAGE
What: "The Vagina Monologues," presented by V-Day 2001
Hawaii will finally get to experience the controversial show when a staged reading of it is presented tomorrow in Kuykendall Auditorium as the centerpiece of the V-Day Hawaii 2001 observances at the University of Hawai'i at Manoa. Local interest in the show is so great here that 17 segments in Ensler's original script will be shared by at least 11 isle women ranging in age 18 to 50-plus and representative of Hawaii's multicultural society. At least three others involved in the production -- Puanani Burgess, Mehealani Kamauu and Kennly Asato -- will be presenting original vignettes written for the Hawaii premiere.
"We thought it would be impossible to pull it off with no resources in the time available," said Ann Brandman, who has been working with Bridget Kelly, Storm Stafford, Tony Castanha, Christine Quemuel, Kathleen Kane and Allison Yap since December to bring the show here and present it as part of V-Day Hawaii 2001 observances.
Brandman and the other volunteers have been scrambling to find the time necessary to put the show together while handling their regular commitments. Proceeds from the V-Day observances will benefit the Sex Abuse Treatment Center, Sisters Offering Support, and the Hawaii State Coalition Against Domestic Violence.
The Hawaii production will have an original visual component as well. Brandman has collected slides of work by resident women artists and plans to utilize them as part of the performance."(Our show) is completely UH-Manoa, community and beyond," she says of the volunteer cast and production crew.
"It's not a regular theatrical production. It's something that keeps growing and growing and changing and changing. The only thing I can say is that every time we're about to tear out our hair when the women come together it's such a great positive experience that we keep going on."
Calling the show "The Vagina Monologues" invites attention but also seeks to expunge the sense of shame or childish titillation that still inhibits open discussion of women's sexuality. Among the topics Ensler covers are "Hair," "The Flood" and "My Angry Vagina."
Some segments are whimsical: "If your vagina got dressed what would it wear?" Among the answers offered at various times: "Cashmere and Pucci," "Silk pajamas with a see-through top," "The panacotta, an Italian dessert" and "Nothing."
Another segment reflects the experiences of women who have been raised to be so uncomfortable with their bodies that they feel it's wrong to even look "down there." Darker still are segments on domestic violence and the use of gang rape as a political weapon in Bosnia and elsewhere.
Such segments reinforce the efforts of the V-Day campaign to increase awareness of violence that is directed against women and girls because of their gender -- rape, genital mutilation or "female circumcision," and the "honor killing" of women in some parts of the world when male relatives find them guilty of violating traditional family values.
The V-Day movement (www. vday.org) acknowledges that men and boys are also victims of sexual violence and domestic abuse but defines its mission as aiding women.
Brandman is hoping that it will be possible to present "The Vagina Monologues" here again next year and that it will have a bigger venue than Kuykendall Auditorium. However, given the amount of time frame that she and the others had to work with, she's happy to be able to present it at all.
"I wasn't gonna do it (because) there just wasn't enough time to pull this off and people just kept wanting to do something," she says. "So we're doing what we can for this year. We've done the best we can. I don't know how the audience will feel (about the show) but we've felt enlivened by it.
"Once the 'Monologues' are done it's really about people remembering what it's for and supporting those agencies. We're hoping it will bring some awareness to them."
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