The 2010 Vagina Monologues
I left the closing performance of The Vagina Monologues yesterday at the Freddy Wood theatre not entirely sure how I felt about this year’s performance. This would be third year I’ve gone to the UBC VDay performance, and the first in which it was held at that venue. I wasn’t really a fan of the previous one (the Music Auditorium), so I thought this was an improvement.
I think the biggest problem with the performance was the costumes. Normally this isn’t a problem, so it took me a while to see it as one. The costumes just didn’t work. I couldn’t believe the actors were the people the monologues were supposed to be from. It wasn’t the actors were worse than the ones in previous years. They just often weren’t good enough to get past the inappropriate costumes.
For me, the “Coochie Snorcher” monologue was worst for this — the actor’s glistening pink cocktail dress just wouldn’t let me believe she was the girl in the piece. I mention this monologue for a second reason — each time I see it, the more it disturbs me. Its message just doesn’t fit with the rest of the play, and with it, seems to say, “rape is good for you if women do it.”
Another serious costuming blunder was the dominatrix in “The Woman Who Loved to Make Vaginas Happy”. Why was she in one of those crappy shirts that look like a lamp shade? She’s a fucking dominatrix!
Moving on, a further major complaint I had was putting “Flood” first. As a computer scientist I have to point out the dependency problem: “Flood” references the “Wear List” — it makes no sense to put “Flood” before it. Not to mention it’s an odd way to start the play, but I’m open to trying new orderings.
This year’s List Girls were a disappointment. Their delivery was just off. It was a shame; they seemed like they should have pulled it off better. The Flower Duet before intermission and the singalong at the end were interesting additions to the play. I liked them. The singalong actually partly made up for the idiot decision to put “I Was There In the Room” as the last monologue.
Apparently as a critic I’m not allowed to be bored, but screw that — “I Was There In the Room” is simply boring. It’s a terrible way to end a play as powerful as The Vagina Monologues. It isn’t awe inspiring, and really ought to replaced with something better. Every of the three years I’ve seen it, that’s been the ending, and every time I point out it sucks.
What normally doesn’t suck with The Vagina Monologues is my favourite monologue, “Remaining Cunt”. This year it started off impressively well: I got pretty stoked when the actor rolled in a blackboard with CUNT written on it as largely as possible.
But the actor failed to get the audience chanting the word, which is really what makes the monologue so good. It’s not “Reclaiming Cunt” unless we chant. This year all there was a cacophony of yelling the word. It wasn’t chanting and it wasn’t empowering or cathartic.
Although this was probably the worst performance of The Vagina Monologues I’ve seen, I did still really enjoy it. The praises I would sing about the work are ones common to every performance: the play’s provocative ability to make you both laugh and think. Even a disappointing implementation of it still pulls off this, and that’s the best thing to get out theatre.
