Vagina monologues. Review of the play "Vagina Monologues". At the forefront
Performance "Vagina Monologues" St. Petersburg, Erarta
performance "Vagina monologues" (The Vagina monologues) turns 20 this year. Like the TV series "Sex and the City", this theatrical production became a sensation in its time. Dedicated to a semi-forbidden, taboo theme, the outrageous performance still gathers full houses - including in Russia. I was wondering what he was like, who plays, who goes to him. I share with you my impressions of watching "The Vagina Monologues" staged by the Teatro Di Capua (August 17, 2016).
Ticket to the performance "Vagina Monologues"
According to legend, the performance is based on 200 interviews taken by the author of the play, playwright Yves Ensler (this is her, of course). The most amusing and piercing female monologues about the female genital organ formed the "backbone" of the production, and every year one new monologue is added to the performance. I'm not sure if the same thing happens with the Russian version. I checked Wikipedia - all the classic monologues seem to be repeated without changes and additions.
"Vagina Monologues" staged by Teatro Di Capua
The theme of the performance is one - VAGINA, and there are a great many sub-themes:
How to find a vagina with a clitoris (here it is important not to wring your neck and become one big clitoris yourself);
What does the vagina look like and what does it smell like (the correct answer is PIPISKA);
What a vagina would wear if she could choose (someone's vagina would remain naked, only in diamonds);
What is the difference between vaginal orgasm, clitoral, combo orgasm, just about orgasm and triple orgasm with surprise;
Is it possible to love a vagina without loving the hair around it;
Women's fears associated with various types of discharge (it's not just about menstruation);
Feminine hygiene;
Rape is of two kinds. One story of a Yugoslav woman, the second of a Georgian girl;
Childbirth (golden theme of airek);
How to correctly name the vagina (everyone knows the five-letter word);
Female masturbation, making women free from men, etc.
Marina Rokina in the play "Vagina Monologues"
In general, the vagina is considered from all sides (for some reason, without demonstrating it). A little bit of everything. There are funny monologues (about Chucha and types of orgasms), there are also depressing ones (about military rape, female circumcision and the fear of leakage, which put an end to sexual life).
Ilona Markarova in the play "Vagina Monologues"
I have no complaints about the text of the play, although over time it could be updated. Still, the new time dictates new topics for discussion. The spectacle itself as a socio-political phenomenon was also responsible for the positive changes, so why not go further? But in general, this is not the main thing. The staging of the play made me sad:
Firstly, it seemed to me that the actresses were already tired of playing the same thing for 7 years. There is no longer the enthusiasm of the discoverers. Most likely, for Teatro Di Capua "Monologues of the Vagina" is a gold mine, as for the four Boyarskys, the play "Intimate Life", which they play for many years from year to year. What I heard (maybe I'm wrong): 100% of the production is given to the actress Marina Rokina(the most eccentric monologue about a five-letter word), half the performance is swaying Ilona Markarova(about Chucha - her signature number) and, as it were, the actress is constantly trying to remember her text Natalia Kudryavtseva(about the basement and Yugoslavia). I did not like the voices of the actresses - they have little emotion and they lack femininity.
Secondly, the sound engineer and the person in charge of the video sequence in the background seemed to be sleeping the whole time. The music constantly drowned out the actresses and sometimes they had to stop so that the music was turned down so they could continue. Or they stood for a few seconds until they finally launch the picture they have to turn to. "Vagina Monologues" is not a cheap performance. Tickets cost from 700 to 2000 rubles. Why such a negligent attitude to the production is a mystery. For 7 years, the performance must be worked out to the smallest detail, that of the sound and video design of the stage.
Should I go to the play "Vagina Monologues" with my husband or young man? More likely no than yes. Men will obviously not be uncomfortable, but bored listening to stories about the vagina and not seeing it with their own eyes. To be honest - with the exception of a few enchanting moments (ess, about orgasms and swear words), in general, the production is very boring and drawn out. Oh yes, in the posters the duration of the performance is stated to be 2.5 hours, but in fact it lasts about an hour and a half - an hour and forty. The audience is 95% women. People left during the performance, but there were not many of them. Basically, young maidens ran back and forth to relieve themselves, as if they were not in the theater, but at a lecture at a university or at a school lesson. In short, sheer lack of culture and incontinence!
Natalia Kudryavtseva in the play "Vagina Monologues"
I put on a play "The Vagina Monologues" 2 stars and would not recommend. At least in this version - I did not like the production. Acting disinterest + technical blots + outdated material. It seems to me that the performance in this form is no longer relevant - its expiration date has expired. And it's time to do "Monologues about the penis" - at least it will be closer and more understandable. You can watch fragments from the performance, and from me - a recording of the final applause:
Director Giuliano Di Capua, an Italian of Swiss origin, created a Russian interpretation of the great theatrical text, which was applauded by world capitals from London to New York.
Eve Insler's play "The Vagina Monologues" is a reworking of more than two hundred interviews with women of different ages and lifestyles. It was honored to play prominent Hollywood actresses such as Winona Ryder, Selma Hayek, Whoopi Goldberg, Glenn Close and Susan Sarandon.
A stormy stream of revelations on the "female" theme. But the author's will transfers the "Vagina Monologues" from the ghetto of psychology and gynecology to the Arcadia of pure art, not clouded by rabid feminism. There are no indifferent. Any viewer either owns a speaking organ, or has come across it more than once.
In the forbidden "Monologues" with strict grace, the cherished brilliant actresses state: Ilona Markarova, Marina Rokina and Natalya Nesterova. Veterans of the scene and young stars are doing a great job with a difficult task. Humility gives way to truth. Which amuses, saddens, shocks, offends, and, ultimately, entertains perfectly.
With the funds from the performance, an organization called "V-day" was created, which quickly grew into a global movement. Crisis centers have been set up in Bosnia, the Middle East, Africa, America and Asia for women victims of violence. The Vagina Monologues is part of Eve Ensler's crusade against the shame many women feel about their bodies and their sexuality. This play, which gave the voice of women of all nationalities and ages, was watched by more than 50,000,000 viewers around the world.
New York actress and playwright Eve Ensler's The Vagina Monologues won the 1997 Obie and was nominated for the Dramadesque and Helen Hazew Awards. The play premiered in New York. Subsequently, the performance was staged in almost all the capitals of the world. As in London, Stockholm, Athens, Jerusalem, Zagreb, and in Rome, Madrid, Paris, Buenos Aires, Istanbul, they say, in Kazakhstan - even in Tbilisi - though, under the name “Sexual Revolution”
The Russian premiere of the same performance took place in September 2003 as part of the "FESTIVAL OF NEW DRAMA" on the stage of the Moscow Art Theater (Moscow)
The performance "Teatro Di Capua" captivated the audience with its subtle humor and grace, and now 14 years contrary to prohibitions and scandals - played in Russia
**************************************************************************************
About the play “Vagina Monologues” from an interview with director Giuliano Di Capua to the Nevskoe Vremya newspaper:
“I wanted to fill in the gaps in sexual education with this reading performance: omissions, excessive modesty, lack of curiosity towards oneself,” Giuliano told the NV correspondent. - Sometimes men do not really want and are not very good at making a woman happy. But then her true destiny will not wake up in a woman, her flower will fade without blooming. I am sure that any woman is beautiful, sexy, successful, healthy, you just need to give her the will to express herself in full force. What is important: this play is not about problems, but about victories. And that is why such life-affirming red dresses on the heroines (the work of the famous St. Petersburg fashion designer Lilia Kiselenko), and there is a yellow color on the stage - joyful and sunny.
***************************************************************************Photo from the performance:
Yves Enzler
Vagina monologues
Dedicated to Ariel
which drives my vagina crazy
and explodes my heart.
FOREWORD
Gloria Steinem
I am a member of the “out there” generation. That is, just like that, occasionally and almost in a whisper, the women of my family called all the genitals, external and internal.
It's not that they don't know about terms like vagina, labia, or clitoris. On the contrary, after all, they received a pedagogical education and probably had unlimited access to information.
They were not enslaved, or, as they themselves would say, intolerant. One of the grandmothers received money from her strict Protestant church for writing sermons, of which she did not believe a word. And then she bet on the horse races and earned even more. The other was an educator, a suffragette and even an aspiring politician, which made many members of her Jewish community unhappy. My mother, for example, worked as a reporter for a progressive newspaper long before I was born. In the future, she was very proud that both her daughters grew up more enlightened than how she was brought up. I don’t remember her talking about the female body as something dirty or shameful, and I am very grateful to her for that. Further you will see that some girls grew up in much more difficult conditions.
However, I have never heard precise definitions, let alone words spoken with pride. For example, I have never heard the word "clitoris". Years passed before I learned that women have the only organ in the human body that is dedicated solely to pleasure. And if such a unique organ was in the male body? Just imagine how often we would hear about him, and for what actions he would serve as an excuse! So when I learned to speak, write, take care of my body, I learned the names of all its important parts, except for one unmentioned area. So I was not ready for offensive words and dirty jokes at school, and later for the statement that men (lovers or doctors) know more about the female body than we do.
I first experienced the feeling of self-discovery and freedom that you will find in these pages in India, where I lived for several years after graduating from college. In Hindu temples and places of worship, I have seen the linga, an abstract symbol of the penis. There I also saw for the first time the yoni, the symbol of the vagina in the form of a two- or three-pointed oval resembling a flower. It was explained to me that thousands of years ago the yoni was more powerful than the male symbol. The origins of worship go back to Tantrism, which is based on the belief that a man can achieve spiritual perfection only through sexual and emotional union with a woman and her higher spiritual energy. This principle was so deeply and widely held that even the monotheistic religions that came later and belittled the role of women retained it in their foundations, although the leading religious leaders always denied it and still consider it heresy.
For example, Gnostic Christians idolized Sophia as the feminine principle of the Holy Spirit and considered Mary Magdalene the wisest of the apostles of Christ. Tantric Buddhism still teaches that the essence of the Buddha is contained in the vulva. The mystics of Islamic Sufism believe that fana, or enjoyment, is achieved only through the fravashi, the feminine essence. The Shekinah in Jewish mysticism is a variation of Shakti, the feminine principle of God. Even some branches of the Catholic Church, while glorifying the Virgin Mary, idolize the Mother more than the Son. In many countries of Asia and Africa, as well as in other parts of the world, where the gods are still depicted in both male and female form, the altar is a Pearl in a Lotus bowl or other symbols representing the “lingam in yoni”. The Hindu goddesses Durga and Kali are the embodiment of the yoni powers that govern birth and death, creation and destruction.
Upon returning home, I realized that American ideas about the female body are too far from the cult of the yoni and the Eastern worldview. Even the sexual revolution of the 1960s brought only one thing to this area: women became more sexually available to men. The “no” of the 1950s has simply been replaced by a permanent, ready-to-go yes. This continued until the rise of feminism in the 1970s, when a variety of alternatives appeared, from traditional religions to Freudianism, from double standards of sexual behavior to uniform control over the female body as a means of reproduction for the patriarchal, political, religious environment.
The first years of discovery are associated with my memories of walking around the House of Women, which was organized by Judy Chicago in Los Angeles. Each of the female artists was given a room, and it was there that I first discovered the symbolism of our culture. For example, the shape that we perceive as the heart, with its symmetry, is more reminiscent of the vagina than the asymmetric organ, the name of which this shape bears. Perhaps this is an echo of the symbol of the female vagina. But the strength he personified was replaced by the romance of a time dominated by men. Sitting in a New York coffee shop with Betty Dotson (you'll meet her throughout the pages of this book), I tried to act as if nothing had happened while she shocked unwitting listeners with her energetic description of masturbation as a way of release. And when I looked in Ms. magazine one day, I found among other humorous headlines: “It's 10 p.m. Do you know where your clitoris is? And when feminists started wearing badges and T-shirts that said "CUNT POWER!" ("Cunt Power!") to give value back to the word "cunt", I was able to feel the rebirth of an ancient power. After all, the Indo-European word "cunt" was formed from the references to the goddess Kali "Kunda" or "Kunti", which have a common root with the words "kin" (genus) and "country" (country).
These three decades of feminism were also marked by great unrest, as new facts of violence against the female body were discovered: rape, pedophilia, humiliation of lesbians, physical abuse of women, sexual harassment, restriction of childbearing, international crimes related to female circumcision. All these previously unknown activities were exposed, which helped save many women. We have channeled our rage into creative energy to quell retaliatory violence and heal trauma. This book and the performance based on it became part of the blast wave, a creative outburst of energy born from the words of truth.
When I first saw the play, where Eve Enzler said very personal things, told by her also in many interviews and translated into the language of the theater, I thought: “But I already know all this. We have been living in this truth for the last thirty years.” This is true. Women entrusted her with their most intimate experiences, from sex to childbirth, from an undeclared war against women to a new freedom in women's love. On each page - the power of words, previously forbidden, and therefore the power of the book lies in what is hidden behind the words. One publisher paid Yves an advance for the right to publish, but then, after carefully weighing everything, decided to leave the money to the author, if only she would take the book, along with all the words on the "in" to some other publisher.
But the value of The Vagina Monologues goes much deeper than digging up a past filled with negative experiences. The book opens an individual path to the future for everyone, with love for your body. I think that readers, both men and women, will draw from these pages a sense of freedom in perceiving not only themselves and each other, but also alternatives to the patriarchal dualism "man - woman", "body - mind", "sex - spirituality", which originates in the division of our body into "parts that are talked about" and "parts that are silent about."
If it seems to you that a book with the word “vagina” in the title is far from philosophical and political issues, I will cite another belated discovery of mine as an example. In the 1970s, while doing research at the Library of Congress, I came across an inconspicuous work on the architecture of religious buildings. It stated that the traditional architecture of ancient places of worship copied the outlines of the female body. Moreover, this fact was presented as well-known. For example, the entrance first to the vestibule, and then to the temple, is the large and small labia, the central passage to the altar is the vagina, the two curved side naves are the ovaries, and the sacred place in the center, the altar, is the uterus, a miracle happens in it and the man gives rise to a new life.
This comparison was new to me and shocked to the core. Of course, I thought. In the main ceremony of patriarchal religions, a man absorbs the energy of the yoni, the power of creation, symbolically giving birth to new life. No wonder the leaders of the world's religions, men, so often say that man is born in sin: each of us is born a woman. And only by obeying the rules of patriarchy can we be reborn, cleansed. It is not surprising that priests go around us, spraying holy water over our heads - a kind of seed that continues the generation, give us new names and promise rebirth into eternal life. No wonder the clergy try to keep the woman away from the altar, just as they try to deprive us of the ability to control our own powers of procreation. All these rituals, symbolic or real, are dedicated to controlling the power contained in the female body.
Vagina monologues - description and summary, author Enzler Yves, read for free online on the electronic library website
Yves Enzler famous playwright. The performances based on her plays The Vagina Monologues (awarded with the Obie Award), The Floating Rhonta and the Glued Man and The Excellent Body brought her worldwide popularity. The Vagina Monologues spawned an entire movement, V-Day (www.vday.org), whose goal is to protect women around the world from violence and provide support to those who have suffered from it. This charitable organization currently operates in 76 countries around the world. The Vagina Monologues is the fruit of Eve Enzler's conversations with a variety of women. Young, old, mature, married, divorced, single, straight, lesbian, bisexual, white, black. Conversations that began with playful questions like "If your vagina were to be worn, what would it wear?" or "If your vagina could talk, what would it say?" ended with the poignant revelations and surprising revelations from which this legendary book grew.
The provocative nature of the Monologues, paradoxically, helps women around the world to establish a unique relationship with their amazing body, be proud of its capabilities, enjoy its beauties and not offend anyone. The play "The Vagina Monologues" was first presented to the public in 1996, in New York. Then Eve herself read from the stage frank confessions of women who decided to talk about their vagina without disgust, embarrassment or awkward giggles. The performance "Monologues of the Vagina" has been successfully staged on the Russian stage for several years, at the Center. Sun. Meyerhold. The play has been translated into 30 languages and shown in 53 countries around the world.
Website of the Russian production of the play: http://www.vaginamonologues.ru/. Translation from English by Anna Ledeneva.
Review of "Afisha": You can hear the vagina at the first officially released performance in Moscow, The Vagina Monologues. The fate of a play in Russia is as difficult as a woman's path to knowing her own desires and translating them into reality. But the silence of vaginas in Russia will be broken already at the beginning of this summer.
The sometimes ironic, sometimes tragic stories were collected by the author of the play, Eve Ensler, from more than 200 women. The monologues are frank because they sounded not so much on behalf of the narrators themselves, constrained by many different factors - social status, the opinions of others, their own complexes, but directly from their vaginas. The latter are not afraid to talk about such "uncomfortable" topics as violence, lesbian love, the process of having a child, offer answers to the questions "What would the vagina say to put it on, what does it smell like?".
The book by Yves Enzler, published in 1998 and received several solid awards, as well as the performance soon staged, caused a flurry of reviews and emotions. The topics raised by the author initiated the creation of the V-Day movement, whose activities are aimed at preventing violence against women and helping victims of it. V-Day is growing day by day, spreading to 76 countries around the world so far, it is a charitable corporation that collects money and distributes it to needy, national and international organizations and projects that seek to stop violence. In their first year of operation (2001), V-Day was named one of the top 100 charities in the world by Worth Magazine. Within seven years, this movement managed to raise more than 25 million dollars, thanks to the performances of "The Vagina Monologues", which are staged by volunteers around the world and other equally interesting actions.
V in the name V-Day means Victory, Valentine and Vagina (Victory, Valentine and Vagina).
Having mastered 30 languages, Monologues has been successfully running for several years in different cities of 53 countries of the world, annually causing more and more attention to itself, raising more and more exciting questions.
The Vagina Monologues shows you how to think out loud without being afraid of yourself.
To refuse it is a ridiculous omission.
Eve Enzler's The Vagina Monologues has been translated into more than 30 languages, and the play is staged in theaters around the world. The first publication of the play in the United States in 1998 caused a kind of revolution, the society began to discuss topics that were previously banned and not worthy of due attention. Her own participation in productions of The Vagina Monologues prompted Ms. Enzler to establish the V-Day movement, an international association of activists against violence against women.
Eve Enzler is also famous for her other plays, such as Necessary Targets, about life in a Bosnian refugee camp; perfection by any means, as well as other plays ("Conviction" (Persuasion), "Lemonade" (Lemonade), "The Depot" (The Barn), "Floating Rhoda and the Glue Man" (Floating Rhoda and the Glue Man), " Extraordinary Measures” (Exceptional measures)).
Yves Enzler is the recipient of the Guggenheim Prize and the Beryl-Ker Drama Prize, as well as many American national and independent awards for performance, drama, and for her civic activism to protect the rights of women and draw public attention to the problems of infringement of their rights, in the first place , in third world countries.
Living in New York, Yves Enzler does not stop traveling around the world, collecting material for his new literary creations and actively participating in various V-Day events. In his activities, the author of the Vagina Monologues touches on new, relevant topics, but does not give universal recipes, but encourages everyone around to become interested in themselves and try to resolve the issues that the modern contradictory world poses to us.
“The monologues are part of Eve Enzler’s crusade to eradicate the embarrassment and shame that women still have about their bodies and sexuality… It’s a celebration of female attractiveness and condemnation of violence against her.”
- The New York Times
“... Gender is your individuality and your happiness, and Yves Enzler rejoices in this like a laughing princess”
-Sunday Times
"Part entertainment, part therapy, part controversy"
- Time Out (London) on the play The Vagina Monologues
About translation
The translator of the play, Vasily Arkanov, is better known to the Russian public on television than in literary translations. Although in the literary field, The Vagina Monologues is not Vasily's only work, he is also the translator of the novel by the American writer Jonathan Safran Foer, Full Illumination. Vasily was the author of articles in the magazines Domovoy and Elle, as well as several published stories.
Currently, Vasily Arkanov is the author of the program “Walking on Broadway” (TV channel “Culture”) and a correspondent for the NTV information service in the USA, where he has been living and working for a long time, having behind him the journalism department of Moscow State University, the department of television journalism of Columbia University, work experience in American media, which probably helped him overcome some of the difficulties of translating the play The Vagina Monologues.