By Tanya Batson, Staff Reporter
In 'The Vagina Workshop', a woman discovers that she has actually not lost her vagina because of years of never having gone near it. - Winston Sill/Freelance Photographer
IF ONE did not see the HBO special, hearing about a play with the title The Vagina Monologues, may be a tad unsettling. The truth is some people would rather not think about vaginas exercising verbosity. If a 'chatty-chatty' woman is to be avoided like the plague, then a 'chatty-hatty' vagina must be Job himself.
Nonetheless, Vaughn Grey chose Eve Ensler's The Vagina Monologues for his first production. Although he revealed to the audience at The Philip Sherlock Centre for the Creative Arts that it earned him the moniker of 'Vagina Guy'. The first time director noted that his decision to work with Ensler's series of monologues, which has received international acclaim, comes from his own respect for the vagina. "I came from a vagina and so I respect it," he told the audience.
As the title suggests, The Vagina Monologues is a series of monologues wherein the vagina is often the major topic. The stories told in the monologues are based on Ensler's anthropological research. The result is a collection of sometimes weird, oftentimes witty, sometimes tragic stories. Some of the monologues are not stories, they simply reveal the way different women relate to their vaginas.
Although the actresses were largely first-time performers, they gave fair performances. Some were clearly uncomfortable with being on the stage while others were probably simply weak actors.
Although this proved to be a decent first time effort, Grey seems to have much to learn in directing. The play suffered from poor blocking and some of the actors were clearly not in tune with their characters. The impact of the some of the stories was also minimised as not all the actors knew their lines.
In some cases, surreptitious glances were cast at slightly concealed cue cards.
In one instance, an actor read directly from a notepad. While her delivery was rather strong, it could have been so much better, had the distracting notepad been not present. While reading may have been acceptable at a reading session, it is not what the presentation was. As such, they failed to maximise on what they had. Additionally, it also introduced a note of inconsistency as some of the actors knew their lines and threw themselves completely into their characters.
Where Grey certainly made a great decision was in selecting the stronger actors to perform the more difficult and challenging stories. Some of these, proved to be quite moving.
As such, regardless of what was to come, The Vagina Monologues went off to a strong, funny and often unsettling start. The first monologue, My Angry Vagina, dealt with a woman with a rather 'angry' vagina. Her vagina was frustrated with tampons, thongs and gynaecological probes, which she argued, were thoughtlessly created.
Several of the monologues were separated by explanations by an Eve Ensler character who often provided relevant information. When one looks deeper, what becomes unsettling about The Vagina Monologues is not that the vaginas can talk, but the stories that they have to tell.
Some of the stories surrounded issues of rape and domestic abuse. In these cases, there was no personalisation of the vaginas. Instead, the women simply told their stories.
The monologue Crooked Braid spoke of spousal abuse. Although it specifically looked at the Native American, it was not a situation unique to them. My Vagina Was My Village spoke of a singular incident that came out of the systematic rape of over 20,000 women in Bosnia and Kosovo.
On the lighter side, monologues such as The Little Coochie Snorcher That Could, dealt with a woman learning and accepting that the vagina is a centre for pleasure, after it had been severely traumatised during her childhood. In fact, it was monologues such as this one which raised the level of the production.
The Flood, My Vagina Was My Village, The Woman Who Loved To Make Vaginas Happy, The Vagina Work-shop, Twisted Braid and My Angry Vagina were all well delivered.
As a result, despite the inexperience of actors and director, the overall product was an interesting one. It would be indeed great if The Vagina Monologues got a chance to be seen by more people than those who turned out to the PSCCA last Monday. However, should it be re-staged the cast and crew owes it to themselves to improve upon the work they have so far done.
