DOE a vagina really talk? Not really, but if it did, you’d only hear the things they have to say in “The Vagina Monologues”.
Controversy draws a crowd. The excessive attention is quite a feat considering that The Vagina Monologues is not the typical popular play: it has no music or plot, and stark staging. Instead, it relies on compelling shorts that blend together into a tapestry of experiences. The premise comes from interviews that were conducted with women from all over the globe about their individual experiences. As the “Introduction” monologue explains, “Women secretly love to talk about their vaginas.” A few of the survey questions and sample answers were included in the play itself: If your vagina got dressed, what would it wear? If your vagina could talk, what would it say?
What does your vagina smell like?
Other segments were dedicated to “Vagina Facts.” Rhea Fantonial-Bautista’s “Outrageous Vagina Fact” included states in which it is currently illegal to sell a vibrator.
She remarked that in each one selling guns is “perfectly legal” and that “we have yet to hear of a mass murder committed with a vibrator.”
However, the majority of the play was dedicated to stories from individual women. Many were tinged with humor or sadness; there was no typical experience. In fact, each character’s monologue was uniquely individual in a way that merely talking about another body part couldn’t be.
For instance, in “The Flood,” Cherie Lou Mendoza-Solon’s character is a 72-year-old woman who reveals her Burt Reynolds fantasies and expresses her reluctance to talk about her “down there” by protesting that it is like the cellar of a house.
You know you have one, she says, but you do not go “down there.”
In “My Angry Vagina,” Charlene Virlouvet listed the numerous ways her vagina was fed up with its current state of being.
With unequalled sass and spunk, Charlene laid out her character’s reasons for having an angry vagina.
As conceptualized by the character, a more vagina-friendly world would eliminate tampons, thong underwear, and the iciness of visits to the gynecologist.
In a monologue that explored the mass rape of Bosnian women as an instrument of war, Thalia Tubungbanua and Sheena Calansingin contrasted their perception of the vagina before and after being gang-raped and tortured for days. Thalia and Sheena’s expressions during the monologue mirrored and gave more meaning to the words.
The penultimate monologue, the one of Jareliese Mauro and Eden Villarba had many in the audience laughing to the verge of hyperventilation. In “The Woman Who Loved to Make Vaginas Happy,” Jareliese portrayed a sex worker who worked exclusively with women. Although the character had started out as a lawyer, “There was nothing like this in tax law ... there was no moaning.” Explaining further that she helped women to find their unique moan, Eden proceeded to explain some of the more common types, including the WASP moan, the semi-religious moan, and the surprise triple orgasm moan. While the names may cause some chuckles, Eden’s impressions were outrageous.
The play was directed by Raymond Ordoño and was received with a full house standing ovation, a rare experience in Cebu Theatre. It was presented at Onstage! Ayala Center Cebu Cinema 1 last Saturday, February 20, 2010. All photos provided are by Marvin Maning Photography.