Surrey Arts Centre presents award winning play The Vagina Monologues to raise awareness of violence against women and girls.
The Vagina Monologues is made up of a varying number of monologues read by a varying number of women.
Every monologue somehow relates to the vagina, be it through sex, love, rape, menstruation, mutilation, masturbation, birth, orgasm, the variety of names for the vagina, or simply as a physical aspect of the female body.
A recurring theme throughout the piece is the vagina as a tool of female empowerment, and the ultimate embodiment of individuality. One particular skit has sparked numerous controversies due to its content.
“The Woman Who Loved to Make Vaginas Happy,” in which a dominatrix for women discusses the intriguing details of her career and her love of giving women pleasure, has raised its share of eyebrows
Several performances, literally climax with a vocal demonstration of a “triple orgasm.”
The Vagina Monologues is an Obie Award-winning episodic play written by Eve Ensler which ran at the off-Broadway Westside Theatre after a limited run at HERE Arts Center in 1996. The production has been staged internationally, and a television version featuring Ensler was produced by cable TV channel HBO. Some monologues include:
“I Was Twelve, My Mother Slapped Me”: a chorus describing many young women’s and girls’ first menstrual period.
“My Angry Vagina”, in which a woman humorously rants about injustices wrought against the vagina, such as tampons, douches, and the tools used by OB/GYNs.
“My Vagina Was My Village”, a monologue compiled from the testimonies of Bosnian women subjected to rape camps.
Every year a new monologue is added to highlight a current issue affecting women around the world. The monologue is performed at thousands of local V-Day benefit productions of the play that take place annually in February and March raising funds for local groups, shelters, crisis centers working to end violence against women. Vagina Monologues will on Sunday, Feb 17 2pm and 8pm at the Surrey Arts Centre.
Net proceeds of this event support Surrey Women’s Centre and Newton Advocacy Group. Reserve your tickets at Surrey Women’s Centre at 604-589-1868 x222 or visit
www.surreywomencentre.ca.