The Sigla Blog

Apparently The Vagina Monologues has had to be renamed for a production run in Florida. One of the play’s aims is to embrace the various words for vagina and encourage women not feel shame when talking about their bodies - a point lost on a local Florida woman who complained (after seeing the play’s title) that she was “offended” when her niece asked her what a vagina was.

How can you teach women to respect and enjoy their bodies when they can’t even say the damn word? It’s very sad. Sadder still that another young girl might grow up ignorant about her physiology because an adult relative was too prudish to talk to her about the medical word for a part of her body. For the duration of its Florida run, the play will now be called The Hoohaa Monologues .

I saw a production of the play in 2001 and the only offensive thing about it was the inclusion of Twink on the bill, who hammed her way through sensitive material by putting on lots of dodgy accents. My other half has not forgiven me for making him sit through it. I think was the bit where the 150-strong audience (of mainly women) were encouraged to chant “cunt!” that did it.

Update: Someone’s seen sense - the name’s been changed back.

Here’s a piece I wrote about The Vagina Monologues in the run up to a production in Spirit last March.

The Vagina Monologues

When Eve Ensler first performed The Vagina Monologues in a New York basement 10 years ago, she couldn’t possibly have foreseen its future. What started as a one-woman play about a taboo topic has achieved the kind of theatrical clout usually reserved for big budget Broadway shows. The concept, a simple but outrageous one, involves women talking about their vaginas. We could have euphemistically said ‘nether regions’ or ‘down there’ but Ensler’s 200+ interviews were all about encouraging women to speak about the unmentionable part of their bodies referred to in the title. From the depths of voiceless, The Vagina Monologues are about reclaiming the unspoken and embracing the cunt. Ensler’s initial idea was to celebrate the vagina, the body part that often defines women but is stereotyped and never verbalised. No fear of that, with a play that encourages the audience to shout out the word ‘cunt’ as crowd participation. Michael Scott, who brought the play to Dublin in 2002 and is directing a new production at Spirit, feels its importance cannot be understated. “When we first performed it, it brought lots of topics into the open that people here just weren’t discussing. One of the stories is about a woman who is embarrassed by her vagina, embarrassed by her own body. This kind of thing needs to become conversational and this play contributes to that.â€?

Dublin is one of 76 countries to stage The Vagina Monologues and the hype as much as the content has helped to elevate Ensler’s work to global phenomenon. In the US, cable channel HBO aired a television version starring Ensler in 2002 where she delved into sexual exploration, fantasy, menstruation, arousal, abuse, genital mutilation and orgasms. The televised version was formatted in the way the original play had been with Ensler as the sole star. In 1998 she won an Obie Award for the play and made two big decisions about is future. Realising that the monologues had a political power, Ensler wanted to expand the idea of celebrating femininity, deciding it could be used to engender a movement to stop violence against women. Thus, V-Day was born. Taking place annually on February 14th, the ‘V’ represents vagina, valentine and victory and links the concept of love with ending domestic violence. Hundreds of colleges in the US stage the play annually (In 2004, 500 colleges took park) with a portion of funds raised benefiting charities that help victims of abuse. To date, the V-Day initiative has raised millions of dollars and a percentage of ticket sales from the Dublin performance will go to the Rape Crisis Centre.

The other big decision, and one which probably sealed The Vagina Monologues success story, was Ensler’s decision to step back and instead recruit other people to tell the stories. And who better, than people who happen to be famous? In a stroke of marketing genius, Ensler realised that audiences curious to hear women discussing vaginas would stampede to see people like Glenn Close and Oprah Winfrey use the word cunt. In the US, stars queued up to get involved and everyone from Meryl Streep, Jane Fonda, Calista Flockhart and Winona Ryder was talking about vaginas. Fonda, who initially turned down a role changed her mind after seeing Ensler perform it in New York, claiming, “It was one of the most memorable and empowering experiences of my life.â€?

The personal stories are the lynchpin of the play, but Ensler juxtaposes the monologues with biological facts - did you know that the clitoris is the only human body part whose sole function is to give pleasure? . and a series of questions put to the original interviewees. Asked ‘if your vagina got dressed, what would it wear?’ the answers were revealing: “a pink boaâ€?, “glassesâ€? and “silk stockingsâ€?. (Interviewees were also asked what their vaginas would say if they could speak). In putting people at ease with whimsical questions, Ensler was able to extract the stories that are at the play’s core. In the humorous ‘My Angry Vagina’, a woman rants about the wrongdoing vaginas suffer from tampons, gynaecologists and thongs. ‘The Woman Who Loved to Make Vaginas Happy’ details the sensuous confessions of a lawyer-turned-dominatrix. It may sound flippant but The Vagina Monologues are about all kinds of experiences, even horrific ones. ‘My Vagina Was My Village’ is a compilation of stories by women in Bosnia. The narrator represents hundreds of women, but they all share the same shocking story of being raped and sexually assaulted with rifles, bottles and broom handles. The Clinic actress Norma Sheehan will be delivering this monologue on the night and is excited to be involved with the production.

“I read the book in one night and if this production wasn’t happening, I would have put it on myself. It had such an impact on me and I’ll never forget the images in that monologue. It’s the most memorable piece in the play.â€?

Sheehan, an experienced actress, admits to being completely undaunted by the play, but some of the cast may feel a little nervous. “The tradition of the showâ€?, explains director Michael Scott, “is to have a mix of actors and non-actors perform. It’s always been done that way and it doesn’t matter that they’re not all actors - they’re all storytellers. Juliet Turner and Mary Coughlan participated in the 2002 production and they approached the pieces from their own perspective, finding their own verbal music and it worked really well.â€? I saw the play in 2002 with Twink, Cathy Tyson and Dillie Keane and got the impression that the interaction between the performers is central to the play actually working. “It is,â€? admits Michael, “and it takes a long time to get the right mix of people. They have to have the right energy and be comfortable with each other. In some ways, this play is harder for an actor because they have to be themselves, they can’t hide behind a character. You’re totally exposed and for people like Glenda (Gilsenan) it’ll be a challenge. She’ll have to talk and not just smile so she’ll have to bring something of herself to the roleâ€?.

Norma Sheehan agrees. “Every part you play requires you to ground yourself in it truthfully and this play is no exception. I get on really well with Glenda and Andrea (Roche) so I think it will work really well.â€? Joining the rest of the cast will be Carry On actress Fenella Fielding, Pamela Flood and Barbara Power. Michael Scott believes the monologues tell a universal story that will always be relevant. “It’s a play about real humanity with real emotional states for people. When we staged it four years ago, we were told that people would pass out, that people would cry . and they did. I don’t doubt that it’ll happen this time around.â€? And how does he feel being one of the first men in the world to ever direct the play? “It’s all about trying to find the emotional truth of each piece and about making people feel comfortable about the text.â€?

While the faint-hearted might not feel that way about the monologues, the play has also offended various shades of opinion. In March 2004, a production of the play starring Jane Fonda, Marisa Tomei and Eve Ensler herself, was banned in the Indian city of Madras. Indian police dubbed parts of the performance “objectionable” and warned that staging it could pose a threat to public order. In 2003 the monologues were performed in Pakistan . but as an invitation-only show and just a year ago, Uganda’s authorities banned the play from being staged in the capital, Kampala. They claimed it “promoted and glorified acts such as lesbianism and homosexualityâ€?. The play has faced bans in other countries, notably China and Malaysia, but not all opposition to The Vagina Monologues is on moral grounds.

Critic Camille Paglia condemned the V-Day movement’s appropriation of Valentine’s Day saying that it has now become a “grisly memento mori of violence against women”. Feminist Betty Dodson accused it of being “a blast of hatred at men and heterosexualityâ€?. Other feminists and academics have condemned everything from its poor writing, the focus on women as sexual beings, the authenticity of the interviews and its claims of empowerment. As academic Christina Hoff Sommers says: “Empowerment is not staring at your vagina in the mirror and weeping or exultingâ€?. Much of the criticism has centred on a monologue entitled ‘The Little Coochie Snorcher that Could’. It details a lesbian encounter between a 24-year-old woman and a 13-year-old girl. Rather than being interpreted as sexual experimentation, it has been pointed out that because of the age difference, it’s molestation. Original copies of the text refer to the encounter as a “good rape” but later editions of the text exclude this and the girl’s age has been changed to 16. Ensler permits these changes as she sees the play as an “ever-evolving workâ€? that addresses contemporary issues, hence the inclusion of an additional monologue about burkas in the Dublin performance.

So what advice would the participants have for anyone who might be nervous about attending? “It’s only words and it’s bound to be educational,â€? concludes Norma. “Eve Ensler collected thousands of stories and even if you despise half of it, one line might have an impact on you.â€? Michael backs this up, “I think the audience, especially any men that come along, will try learn something about women. This isn’t a feminist piece, it’s about humanity.â€?

What Ensler has attempted to do with The Vagina Monologues is to give the unheard women of the world a voice. It’s up to the audience whether those voices embarrass you or make you laugh or cry. Either way, it’s an important piece of theatre that should also be judged on its global message and anything that raises consciousness about unspoken issues and mistreatment of women can only be a good thing.