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MISS "The Vagina Monologues" last year? There was such a tremendous response when Ann Brandman and Bridget Kelly presented a single free performance at the University of Hawaii at Manoa -- many people had to be turned away, many of them in tears -- that the volunteer cast quickly agreed to do a second performance immediately after the first.
'The Vagina Monologues' opens
tonight at Hawaii Theatre with
the purpose of starting dialoguesBy John Berger
jberger@starbulletin.comAccess won't be a problem this time as Jam Theatricals presents playwright Eve Ensler's controversial hit play in a two-week run at Hawaii Theatre.
Brandman and Kelly mounted their version as a community theater project in which almost every segment was performed by a different person, and with additional original pieces adding a local perspectives. Jam Theatricals is bringing the official road show production with a three-woman cast. Amy J. Carle, Mackenzie Philips and Michele Shay open the Honolulu engagement tonight. Loretta Swit will replace Philips for the second half of the run here, and Brooke Shields will replace Swit when the show goes to Maui after that.
Ensler originally staged the show as a one-woman performance piece she's still performing in a solo tour in other parts of the country. Celebrities appear in the three-woman version for different lengths of time in different cities. In some cities, a local celebrity becomes the cast's third member.
"It's different every time because each woman is different. It's fascinating how different a piece sounds from woman to woman," Shay said.
Honolulu is third stop for Shay and Carle since they started working together last month. Last week Shay was doing the segments entitled "Hair," "The Little Coochie Snorcher That Could," "Because He Liked to Look At It" and "The Woman Who Liked to Make Vaginas Happy." Philips may lay claim to one or more of them tomorrow night. Swit will also have her choice of segments next week.
Shay saw the show several times before being invited to perform it, and says doing the show is more fun than watching it. "It's a very powerful experience. The spirits of the women Eve interviewed live in the pieces, and you search and find their souls and try to be true to them. It transforms you just as it transforms the audience.
"I just love looking in the faces of the women and the men and watching their expressions change as we go from piece to piece. I particularly like the men's response because the men always get surprised at how much they enjoy it. There's something there for them as well as for the women," Shay said.
Honolulu will be the sixth time Swit has done the show. She first appeared in it in New York last summer and was most recently performed it in London. She expects to do "Hair," "Bob," "Bosnia" and "Sex Worker," although she has other favorites as well.
"I think they're all very good but I particularly enjoy the ones I'm doing now," Swit said yesterday.
"I really think it's a wonderful, wonderful piece of theater. Any piece of theater which for an hour-and-a-half allows me to do different characters that will make you laugh, make you cry, make you feel -- that in itself is enough of a reason (to do the show) -- but this piece goes beyond that because of the impact it has on the audience. It's extremely rewarding.
"Add to that that a large percentage of the income from all the companies goes to women's organizations all over the world and you have an ideal situation. It's something I'm doing that I'm 100 percent proud of."
Ensler first presented "The Vagina Monologues" six years ago. She had interviewed several hundred women from a broad spectrum of society and then combined their comments with her observations to convey how women feel about the part of their bodies that gives the show its title.
The show has been called everything from empowering and thought-provoking to obscene and raunchy. It has also inspired at least one satirical version, "The Scrotum Monologues," and some critics have judged it sight unseen as either "anti-male" or "pro-lesbian."
Love it or hate it, "The Vagina Monologues" is a contemporary phenomenon. In some major cities it has been staged with trios of celebrities such as Diahann Carroll, Nell Carter, Calista Flockhart, Teri Garr, Gina Gershon, Rita Moreno, Alanis Morissette, Rosie Perez, Marlo Thomas and Marisa Tomei.
One can't help but wonder if Ensler's decision to call the show "The Vagina Monologues" might not have involved a thought or two about the public furor and subsequent publicity it could generate; a title like "Things I Learned When I Interviewed Several Hundred Women" certainly doesn't have the same impact.
The reaction from city to city has become a social litmus test. There are people out there who still describe "the V word" as problematic in marketing the show.
"I don't think there's so much of a problem with that any more," Swit said. "This has now become such a tremendous event -- with V-Day in Madison Square Garden -- and I think that over this period of time we've had "Vagina Monologues" in big posters (that) people have learned that this is nothing to be shy about. The companies that I've been doing (the show with), we get hysterical in the middle of doing the list (of euphemisms) because they're so funny. It makes fun of how silly we've been.
"I'm sure there are still some shy individuals out there who won't see the play or are afraid of it. There's nothing to be done about that, but knowledge is power. As soon as you embrace what the writer is saying you've realized that it's just a word."
Anyone familiar with the show knows that it is not about female genitalia but about the experiences women have in relating to their bodies and the social constraints that have been part of being female.
Some monologues are whimsical. "If your vagina got dressed, what would it wear?," answers in part: "Mink," "Armani only," "See-through black underwear" and "An electrical shock device to keep unwanted strangers away."
Other segments share the experiences of women who have been taught to be uncomfortable with their bodies, and the darkest vignettes address domestic violence and the use of rape as a political weapon in Bosnia and elsewhere.
Another monologue seeks to "reclaim" a slang term that is considered so taboo that even hard-core gangster rappers don't use it. Put them all together and "The Vagina Monologues" is the foundation of the V-Day programs to increase awareness that is directed against women and girls because of their gender -- including genital mutilation ("female circumcision") and the "honor killing" of women in parts of the world by male relatives for failing to uphold family values. The V-Day organization (www.vday. org) acknowledges that men and boys are also victims of sexual violence and domestic abuse but defines its mission as aiding females.
A basic part of that mission is expunging the sense of shame or juvenile titillation that inhibits open discussion of female sexuality. Hawaii playwrights Margaret Jones and Jan Itamura addressed it in 1993 with their two-woman show, "A Period Piece," and were frank in sharing their early menstrual experiences. One of Ensler's monologues, "I Was Twelve. My Mother Slapped Me," is reminiscent of "A Period Piece," but knits together the experiences of a larger number of women.
Shay cautions that "The Vagina Monologues" may not be not suitable for pre-teens.
"Eve is working on a piece for younger girls. I had a niece who's about 10 who was really upset that she couldn't come and see the show because we didn't want her to hear all the things that were said in it and we were afraid about her being affected by it. She said, "I have a vagina too. Why can't I come?' "
In short, when pre-teens and young teens of both sexes are old enough for the show is a judgment call. Shay says most of the women who see it -- college age and older certainly -- come away with a stronger sense of confidence and self-worth.
"The younger women don't have the same issues with the bodies that older women do, and yet it still rings a chord. A friend of mine did the show in L.A. and her daughter didn't want to come see the show with her father. I had friends in New York, and the daughter came to the show with her father and it was a great experience for both of them."
Where: Hawaii Theatre 'The Vagina Monologues'
When: 7:30 p.m. Tuesdays to Thursdays; 8 p.m. Fridays; 5 and 8 p.m.
Saturdays; and 2 and 7 p.m. Sundays, through Feb. 3.
Admission: $20 to $45
Call: 528-0506
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