A woman wearing a shiny red bustier writhes on stage in ecstasy. She breathes heavily, gyrates her hips, moans loudly and shouts, “Oh, my God! Oh!”
Linda Faulkner performs ‘The Flood’ scene at a Bangkok performance of The Vagina Monologues, a play directed by Julie Graham and Amanda Laragione. Photo by Tejas Tamobhid
This could well be a scene straight out of a raunchy sex show in Bangkok.
But instead of a display of flesh, we’re viewing a performance of The Vagina Monologues. The actors are activists for various women’s issues and the leather-and-lace-clad woman on stage, however convincing she may be, is just acting out the play’s memorable “surprise triple orgasm moan” scene.
“The Vagina Monologues, they’re supposed to provoke,” said Chiedza Mutsaka, an organiser with Bangkok Rising, a group campaigning for the elimination of violence against women and girls, which arranged the stage performance last month. “It’s supposed to demystify the word [vagina]. It’s supposed to disarm the word.”
The play is a collection of monologues based on interviews that American playwright and activist Eve Ensler conducted with women around the world about their vaginas. The script has been translated into 48 languages and performed in more than 140 countries. It was previously staged here by different Thai and international groups and yet its relevance and popularity remains strong among women performers.
Mutsaka, a 27-year-old Bangkokian originally from Zimbabwe, said that some women are still embarrassed to utter the word “vagina”, a barrier she thinks it is important to overcome.
“If a little girl is told she can’t say the word ‘vagina’, she has to call it a ‘wee wee’, or whatever. Is she ever going to say, ‘Mum, that man touched my wee wee’? If you tell a child it’s a mysterious place, she won’t know how to talk about it with you.
“You have to say it like it is.”
The play has some humorous tales, including a monologue about pubic hair and a scene that discusses what women’s vaginas would say if they could talk — “slow down” was one suggestion — but the monologues also address serious topics.
“People think ‘Oh, The Vagina Monologues, yay it’s funny.’ But it’s also dark. It’s real. We force you to face the reality of it,” Mutsaka said, referring to the monologues dealing with sexual violence, female genital mutilation and rape.
Ellen Visscher, an American teacher based in Bangkok who attended her first performance of The Vagina Monologues last Thursday, said the play struck a good balance between being entertaining and moving. “It was equal parts funny, entertaining and touching,” she said.
The play also attracted such high-profile figures as Roberta Clarke, regional director for UN Women Asia-Pacific, who praised the performance. “It was just wonderful to see women, across all the diversity there, doing something, which is quite profound and speaks to women’s experiences,” she said.
Although the Bangkok Rising group is barely one year old, it is already establishing itself as a fixture in the capital’s feminist scene. With International Women’s Day coming up on March 8, the group is organising a flash-mob event to be held at 4pm on Saturday at a location to be announced.
“We do come from a lot of different places and we have different views on everything,” said Mutsaka, referring to the group’s international make-up of expats and Thais. “[International Women’s Day] is our thing to unite on. Our day to celebrate women.”
The three February performances of The Vagina Monologues — two for the public at Check Inn 99 restaurant/bar and one put on especially for the Expat Ladies in Bangkok group — drew more than 400 people out to see the show. The sold-out performances demonstrate the growing desire in Bangkok for theatre that raises awareness about sexual freedom and women’s issues, said members of Bangkok Rising.
Indeed, in a city that caters to “sexpats” with zones like Soi Cowboy and Nana Plaza, The Vagina Monologues offers refreshingly female-friendly entertainment. But aligning with the humour in the performance, the actors also took the opportunity to poke a bit of fun at Bangkok’s notorious red-light scene, at one point tossing ping-pong balls into the audience.
While issues tackled in the play are predominantly female-centric, The Vagina Monologues is not just for ladies. While the audience for the final performance was mostly female, several men were also seen enjoying the play.
Hannah Cone, an art teacher who performed in the play, said that before she joined Bangkok Rising, her boyfriend was more of a feminist than she was. “Now I think we’re probably equal... he’s still a huge feminist,” she said.
Another performer, Linda Faulkner, said The Vagina Monologues transcends women’s issues.
“Truly, I believe that this script applies to humanity, not just to women,” said the 52-year-old from Canada.
The purpose of restaging The Vagina Monologues was to raise awareness about violence against women and children and also to raise funds for a charitable cause. Bangkok Rising managed to raise nearly 90,000 baht for In Search of Sanuk, a Bangkok-based organisation that provides food, shelter and support to survivors of torture and trauma.
