Spitting On Sacred Ground - Part II

Battle of the sexes? WHAT THE?! I then went on to read that the cast was going to consist of men, women, "and a drag queen" reading "selected" monologues. Selected? You mean, they were going to edit sections of the script at will? I simply couldn't believe what I was reading. It came across as a joke, as if someone had been sitting around drunk one Friday night and yelled "Hey I have an idea! Let's do The Vagina Monologues, but put some dudes in!" And a drunker friend yelled back "Even better, let's get a drag queen!" It was an attempt to cash in by turning TVM into a gimmick, as if the show as originally written wasn't enough. TVM does not need gimmicks. The funny pieces are already funny, and the poignant pieces would be diminished. Let's see... would My Vagina Was My Village, a true account of wartime gang rape as told by a young Bosnian girl, be positioned before or after the drag queen? Were men going to help reclaim the word "cunt", a word about which a monologue was written because of that word's abusive use by men? Or would that monologue fail to make the "Selected" list? I was incensed. NO producer or director worth their salt could truly understand what The Vagina Monologues is and at the same time conceive of this idea. It disregards the very foundation and genesis of the show, and undermines its intent.

I am sure that there are people who will say that this outcry is that of angry feminists and that this show could be an interesting experiment. Well so could A Raisin In The Sun with an Aryan cast or Little Women with four boys. Something being "interesting" doesn't mean it's smart, or right, or most importantly - servicing and honouring what's on the page. There are situations in which wild experimentation is exciting and justified, and others in which honesty in storytelling should supercede everything. TVM is one of those situations. I say to this company - if you want to produce a play that features men and women "battling" it out as they both talk about sensitive women's issues - write or commission it yourself. Leave The Vagina Monologues alone. Along with my anger at the blatant disrespect, I was very disturbed that if this production happened, the public wasn't going to know the facts or whose idea it was. People would hear about it and think "Oh, The Vagina Monologues has men in it now? Guess it wasn't bringing in the audiences anymore with just women." I was bothered that it would give the impression that it had been decided that the show NEEDED men or that it would be more hip or current or sellable with men in it, or that someone with a lack of understanding of the show equal to this company's producer would review this version and call the change "exciting". I was worried about the precedent that it could set. If it was allowed to happen once anywhere, people would start to do it more and more, with more and more men, until eventually someone would dare to try an all-male version.

More than anything, I was deeply concerned that people who love TVM and V-Day would think that Eve was selling out her own show. There are SO many people around the world to whom the ideology behind the show means so much and neither I nor V-Day wanted anyone to think for a moment that Eve had betrayed her own vision. It was very important to me that if we couldn't stop this perversion from happening, that people at least knew that this version of the show was being produced against the playwright's wishes. Part of what makes TVM so special is that although it is performed BY women, it is for BOTH sexes to see and enjoy. I say to men that if you have women in your life who you love and seek to understand a bit better, TVM is worth seeing. For the men who are open-minded and curious enough to see it, it can be quite a gift. Some of the most moving letters I've received from audience members after the shows have been from men who accompanied (or were dragged by) their girlfriends, wives or friends. There was even once a group of college boys who showed up "for a laugh" and told me afterwards that they had cried and had been opened in a way they didn't expect. That kind of transformation can only happen when the show is being performed from a place of authenticity, and rehearsed in a setting of female mutual understanding and comraderie. It is a disservice to the potential viewing experience of both men AND women to not present this show as it was intended. It is a disservice to the truth.

I am furious that Eve has had to fight this while already dealing with serious health issues, which is why I am so very happy to finally be able to say that we have prevailed and the show will be performed with a female cast. I am most happy for Eve who doesn't have to watch this blatant bastardization of her work. Perhaps this company will have the support of many in the theatre community, saying that their unique vision was censored. Who knows? I could be jeopardizing my own associations by speaking out against it, but I could not sit back and say nothing. The Vagina Monologues is not the "best" play in the world. I certainly know that, and Eve certainly knows that. But what it has become in the last 13 years, and what it is today, is extremely important. It has become a voice for the voiceless. Internationally through V-Day, it has raised a mindblowing $70 million for anti-violence organizations. It has been a way in to wholeness and healing for hundreds of thousands of women, and a doorway to understanding for men around the world. Men are wondrous. Men are beautiful. But TVM is an intimate look inside the hearts, minds and bodies of women, to be shared BY women. Honour that. Celebrate that. Do NOT dare to spit on sacred ground.

- TT