A play that fits into the mission of Zonta Club 111
“Good is towing the line, being behaved, being quiet, being passive, fitting in, being liked, and great is being messy, having a belly, speaking your mind, standing up for what you believe in, fighting for another paradigm, not letting people talk you out of what you know to be true.”
Playwright Eve Ensler showed no qualms about being ‘great’ in her own right, and did so expressively when she penned her internationally groundbreaking play: The Vagina Monologues. Coming to Sri Lanka in exactly two weeks, Zonta Club III of Colombo in collaboration with India’s Poor Box Production Company will present two performances of the internationally acclaimed play as part of their “No to Violence” imitative creating awareness of the futility of violence against women and children.
Since their inception in 2008 Zonta III has embraced several projects including the mentorship programme; where third year university students are mentored by professionals in their selected field of career and working alongside Sarvodaya. A campaign that has its imprint on the club is their advocacy toward creating awareness of domestic violence and the abuse and harassment of women.
A perfect marriage therefore was Eve Ensler’s blunt realistic piece on women and the Club’s message to the public as a whole.“Sometimes to get a person to act you need a medium of some sort,” explained President of the club Priyanganie Mushin.
Having first seen the play 10 years ago, when Poor Box Productions first came down to Sri Lanka, the one and a half hours she was seated in the auditorium left her transfixed. Touching on subjects most people, women included, would never openly discuss, the performance left her with a sense of revelation, even liberation. The play is known for being provocatively brutal and she reminisced about the lady seated next to her in the theatre who seemed squeamish toward the beginning. “But after the performance was over there was a crowd of women lined up outside waiting to talk to the cast” describing the impact it had on so many. “In a way it’s about accepting your own sensitivity” she admits.
Written in 1996 the award winning play was initially a character driven one woman show. Based on over 200 interviews of women, the monologues are almost poetry while giving light to usually hushed issues regarding women. From laughter to tears, anger and celebration, the play speaks through the perspectives of women from different ages, races and situations from a six-year- old girl, mothers and daughters, a Bosnian rape victim to Ensler’s own monologue as a first time grandmother. An international phenomenon, the acclaimed play gave rise to the birth of the V Day Movement; whose participants host similar events to raise awareness for women in their communities around the globe.
In 2004, Poor-Box Productions produced ‘V-Day India’ alongside Oscar-winners Jane Fonda and Marisa Tomei with the playwright Eve Ensler to perform with the Indian cast in Mumbai and Delhi. The company has also partnered with some of Bollywood’s screen actors – Imran Khan, Farhan Akhtar and many more – to spread the word of non-violence against women. Internationally acclaimed producer, director and stage and screen actor Mahabanoo-Mody Kotwal, will direct this performance. She was chosen by Femina Magazine as one of the 50 most powerful women in India in 2007.
Zonta Club III Colombo presents Eve Ensler’s “The Vagina Monologues” in collaboration with Poor Box Productions on August 24 at 3 p.m. and 7.30 p.m. at the British School Colombo Auditorium. Tickets for the performance are priced at Rs 5000, Rs 4000, Rs 3500, Rs 2500 and Rs 1500.They are available at the British School of Colombo.
Additionally, for ticket bookings ycall Quickee.lk on 0117324325/6, get them delivered to you and pay with cash or card on delivery. For updates on tickets and the box plan, please visit the Zonta Club III Facebook Page at www.facebook.com/zontaclub3 .