16809: (Bellegarde-Smith) Vagina Monologue Enters Port-au-Prince (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: P D Bellegarde-Smith <pbs@csd.uwm.edu>



Vagina Dialogue Enters Port-au-Prince
PAWOL KONPA WILL RETURN

By Amy Bracken - The Haitian Times, September 24, 2003

PORT-AU-PRINCE - Most Haitians living in and around the nation’s capital were
aware that a risqué play was coming to town somewhere around Sept. 20.
Posters at major intersections, full-page newspaper ads, and announcements on at
least six radio stations and two television stations informed the public of the
upcoming "Monologues du Vagin," French for the Vagina Monologues.

There were two completely distinct Monologues productions showing in the same
city during the same weekend. Both plays were basically French translations
of the script written by Eve Ensler, an American, but they couldn’t have been
more different.

In presentation, audience and venue, the two Monologues contrasted deeply.
And politics, it seems, might have played a role in the performances,
particularly in how they were promoted. But however it was done, audiences enjoyed the
Monologues and they were testaments to the creativity of their producers,
directors and casts.

One show was performed by a Belgian woman at the El Dorado Cinema near
downtown Sept. 18 and 19, kicking off a ten-day Belgian-Haitian theater festival.
The other involved nine actresses and, oddly, one actor under the direction of
Florence Jean-Louis Dupuy at Café des Arts in Pétion-Ville on Sept. 20.

Olivier Blin, a Belgian organizer, said he was surprised and confused by the
existence of the latter. He said he gave a copy of the script to Dupuy when
she asked for it, but he did not know that she was going to create her own
production.

According to Dupuy, the Belgians asked her to do her own production. She had
done overtly political plays about Haiti, but the Monologues script grabbed
her and she decided it was important for her to do a Haitian version, Dupuy
said.
"It’s more normal [accepted] for a foreigner to talk about her vagina because
of well-known "European emancipation," Dupuy said, "but when it's Haitians,
it's another thing."

Simplicity versus Sass
At the El Dorado, an elegant, statuesque, Belgian woman of Rwandan origin
morphed seamlessly from female character to female character - young narrator,
75-year-old woman, six-year-old girl - through hilarious imitations of various
types of orgasm. The diva, the unexpected triple, the little girl, the zen,
and, in the only local adaptation, the Pétion-Ville (high society) were a few of
the orgasms.
Esthel Marion’s only company onstage was a swing, a chair, and some simple
white lighting. The audience of 250 on Thursday night laughed at appropriate
times, but was quiet through most of the show. Afterwards, two women representing
the Port-au-Prince-based feminist organization EnfoFanm discussed the
struggle to combat violence against women and to defend their reproductive rights in
Haiti. The show drew 330 on Friday.

Up in Pétion-Ville on Saturday night, the Café des Arts was packed with
people either finishing dinner or having drinks. The energy was high the moment
that nine women strutted onto the stage in tight black outfits.

The pace was quick; and the voices loud, bold, and often sassy. The
monologues were occasionally divided between actresses to create a sort of dialogue.
Music blasted between scenes, and the women sauntered or shifted in tightly
choreographed motion.

The audience whooped, laughed, and made comments during the funny parts,
especially those in Creole. Some tables even found something to laugh at during
the serious parts on rape and genital mutilation.

As one character gave an account, others occasionally reacted with lateral
head movements or wagging fingers, or, when one complained that her husband
forced her to shave her vagina, muttered in unison, "salaud" (bastard).

The multiple orgasm scene was done by a man in drag, accompanied by a smoke
machine and multi-colored lights. Dupuy added a game show scene in which
contestants were asked to describe the odor of their vaginas. The scene spun out of
control as one contestant insisted aggressively after her time was up that
hers smelled like Coco Chanel.

Dupuy incorporated some Haitian references and Creole language into hers, as
well as added monologues. Dupuy said Creole has more impact because it has the
power to make men really embarrassed since they’re not used to hearing
Haitian women speak that way. Indeed, the already animated audience at Café des Arts
went most wild during Creole parts of the play.

The Politics of "du Vagin"
Monologues was the first play Dupuy directed that she had not written or
dramatically adapted herself, she said. She had done "Sarafina," but about the
Duvalier dictatorship; and "Le Petit Prince," but about Haiti. She also called
"Monologues du Vagin" the first non-political play she had ever done in her ten
years as a director. "It's certainly political in that it involves women," she
said, "but in a universal way."

It's not political, political. Or is it?
The French Belgian government was the biggest sponsor for the Belgian-Haitian
festival. Blin said Belgian organizers tried to get the Haitian government
involved in the exchange, but the latter had no interest.

Perhaps this had something to do with the Lavalas government’s allegiance.
Florence Dupuy is the wife of Mario Dupuy, the leading spokesperson for the
Lavalas government.

Ads for the festival were aired free of charge on radio stations the
government considers anti-government - Metropole, Kiskeya, Caraibes, Radio Ibo, and
Signal FM.

Dupuy’s production, by contrast, was advertised in the government newspaper,
L’Union, sometimes with one-and-a-half-page ads.

Blin said he was happy to see other people performing Monologues as long as
they stay true to the spirit of Ensler’s original.

Blin acknowledged that Dupuy’s incorporation of Creole was a good idea.
Audience feedback after the Belgian performance at the El Dorado - as well as
previous free shows in Cap-Haitien and Jacmel - suggested that it would have been
wonderful to see at least part of it in Creole.

Maybe next year, Blin said.


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