Dilnaz Irani did a fine telling of the story of Atul Kulkarni who loved vaginas, but what stole the show was the young actress’s moan marathon in the piece Love to Make Vaginas Happy. The clit moan, the vaginal moan, the doggy moan, the machine-gun moan, the twisted-toe orgasm moan, and the Bollywood moan... Dilnaz did it all and what a riot she was!

Avantika Akerkar flashed some thigh, clicked her fingers and made the audience chant ‘c**t’ with her. She also had the most public orgasm that Calcutta has possibly ever witnessed, and brought to life the moving piece The Little Coochi Snorcher That Could, which tells the story of a little girl’s rape and abuse and how she rediscovered her vagina.

Dolly Thakore’s solo act was a powerful piece on childbirth, titled I Was There In The Room, which is Eve Ensler’s personal account of witnessing her granddaughter’s birth. Dolly also teamed up with Mahabanoo for the brutally moving piece My Vagina Was My Village that tells the harrowing tales of survivors of rape camps in Bosnia.

Mahabanoo Mody-Kotwal started the evening by urging the audience to shout, whisper or just remember that forgotten word — vagina. She was brilliant as the Parsi woman in the funny yet poignant piece The Flood. And her impersonation of the Bengali marriage counsellor in the section called Hair was spot on!

Spatica Ramanujam played narrator for most of the pieces and read out a few lines penned by Kaizaad Kotwal after the New Delhi gang rape. Urging everyone to “speak up, because silence means death,” the play dedicates the section on Bosnia to the young paramedic who died.

My vagina and I are so effusive that my vagina and I are out of wits and out of words. Stupendous — Sneha
Kind of realised the importance of the vagina. Thank you — Reena

That was Calcutta thanking five wow women for helping her find her vagina voice! But it was not just about glowing tributes in the comments book, the Indian production of Eve Ensler’s world-famous play The Vagina Monologues was greeted with a standing ovation after two packed-to-capacity shows at GD Birla Sabhagar on Wednesday. Staged by Poor-Box Productions and presented in Calcutta by Master Minds Theatre in association with t2, The Vagina Monologues is co-directed by Mahabanoo Mody-Kotwal and her son Kaizaad Kotwal. It has been running in Mumbai since 2003 but this was the first public performance in Calcutta. The monologues were compiled by Eve Ensler after interviewing over 200 women from across the world and have been performed in numerous countries. On Wednesday, the play was performed by Mahabanoo Mody-Kotwal, Dolly Thakore, Avantika Akerkar, Dilnaz Irani and Spatica Ramanujam.

Another vagina monologue

I would be surprised if the vaginas of many little girls in the country didn’t close up visualising the brutality of the Delhi gang rape, as mine had many years ago reading about the

Bantala rape in the newspapers. Since then the vagina had been a no-man’s-land in my mindscape for years. A place I knew existed but never claimed ownership of. Because its capacity to feel both pleasure and pain was just so raw, visceral and powerful. More powerful than me, myself.

Reading Eve Ensler’s book some years back, I remember being shocked, stunned and sad with a lump in my throat, feeling expansive in the knowingness of it all — the shared memories of generations of women gone before me, of those around me and of my own. Then gasping, laughing and keeling over, and feeling... yes, liberated. But that was in the privacy of my bedroom.

On Wednesday in Calcutta, I went through the same torrent of emotions. This time in a room brimming with women and some men. Together we watched Ensler’s provocative/rebellious/irreverent/heart-rending/riotous monologues unfold on the stage. In an unprecedented public experience, we heard and saw a woman sing the word ‘c**t’ like a jingle and another woman moan, in many different ways. And quietly we revelled at their bodies’ courage to assert their sexuality. Not in the critically acclaimed Dirty Picture-Vidya Balan way, but for what a woman’s body is.

In the auditorium, I found women around me giggling at first, at the many innuendoes and unabashed admissions about the vagina’s whereabouts, then rolling in raucous laughter. I also heard myself and the other women chorus ‘vagina’ thrice, in rising decibels, something like the Inquilab Zindabad chant.

So, what was so strangely liberating for us women who saw the Vagina Monologues on Wednesday? Or, what did we liberate ourselves from? Yes, it was about reclaiming a much-used body part as more than a utility product, to acknowledge that the vagina has a mind and heart of its own. It’s something you take pride in, feel good about, like maybe the breasts. And having the husbands, boyfriends, male friends and fathers as witnesses of that proclamation (because we can’t pretend they don’t exist as far as our vaginas are concerned).

It was liberating to accept that the vagina can hurt like hell but also absorb the pain and heal its scars. And the knowing in your heart that the vagina should not feel scared, ashamed or embarrassed when incidents like the Delhi and Bantala gang rapes happen. That it is a one-woman’s-land. To be lived with owner’s rights and dignity.

Yes, it was hugely liberating to liberate my vagina from myself. I was my vagina’s neighbour. Now it’s me.

(An audience member )

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“Bold, and based on flinty truths that very, very few of us are prepared to articulate to ourselves, let alone to others, the performance shocked, provoked and moved the audience. The audience was urged to reclaim the word ‘vagina’, and later, clap along to ‘c**t’. There was a great deal of nervous laughter. But I think the Calcutta bhadralok audience acquitted itself well enough” — devapriya roy, author

“The play will undoubtedly alter the perspective of the body and the associated pain, joy, loss and gain of every viewer, irrespective of one’s gender.” — Urmi Basu, founder-director of NGO

New Light

“It was quite liberating. We never, ever openly voice these issues. The actors were from all age groups and the stories were about all age groups. They made it seem as if the vagina was a person! For me every moment was powerful. How they described the vagina as a heart was touching.” — Pinky Kenworthy, artist

The five wow women raise a toast ‘to all vaginas’ and chat with t2 about their 11-year journey with the vagina monologues

After two riveting shows, the cast of The Vagina Monologues sat down for a chat over dinner with t2 at Fortune Select Loudon to talk more about the vagina...

What did you think of the Calcutta audience after the two shows?

Dolly Thakore: Well, it was a very large audience, 650 people! I don’t think we’ve had that large an audience in other places, except in Baroda. So it was quite intimidating to start off with but it was wonderful because they were very responsive. And two full houses, that was excellent.

Why do you think there’s this tremendous response wherever you perform?

Mahabanoo Mody-Kotwal: The topic is such that people have not discussed this for years... nobody even thought about their vaginas. And the play really resonates with everybody — men, women….

Dolly: It’s amazing how many minds the play has opened up. You know, some of them come with varying degrees of trepidation but my god, it’s had amazing response!

Mahabanoo: We’ve made India say the word ‘vagina’, that much we can take credit for (laughs).

Dolly: The first show we did, we had an 80-year-old man come on the stage at Prithvi Theatre in Mumbai and touch our feet, saying, ‘I am so happy to be alive to be able to see how the Indian woman has evolved!’ And we’ve had lots of people watch the show and say we’ve got to bring our parents, our grandparents, our children.

Avantika Akerkar: We’ve had people come six or seven times.

Dolly: We’ve had people come and celebrate their wedding anniversaries by watching the show.

Avantika: Even birthdays…

Mahabanoo: Then engagements, announced from the stage…

Avantika: It’s almost like a rite of passage. I remember after one of our initial shows, these three guys came up to me and in a very heavy provincial accent said, ‘Madam, we thought it was a sex show and a pole-dancing show but what we saw today has really opened our eyes.’

Did you find it difficult to talk about such intimate things on stage in the beginning?

Avantika: No, not at all, for me at least. As actors when we go on stage we are able to put aside personal thoughts and ideologies but with something like this, you can’t put it aside. Because a lot of times, I am not performing. I am speaking, I am feeling, I am emoting. So in that sense it is not difficult to perform this play.

Dilnaz Irani: I started with the Hindi version, Kissa Yoni Ka, and there were some swear words that I found difficult to shout out. During rehearsals I would hesitate and Mahabanoo would be like, ‘SAY IT!’ But once it was out of me, I just took off.

What about experiences?

Dolly: We’ve often had a lot of women come and cling to us and cry. Because it touches an emotion in them, particularly the Coochi Snorcher piece.

Spatica Ramanujam: Yeah, after our Baroda show, I remember this guy came up to me and told me all about his love life. You know, sharing such intimate details about their life with a total stranger is quite incredible! That’s what the script does.

Dolly: Yes, it helps shed inhibitions.

Avantika: I do this part called the Vagina Workshop… one day, I stepped out of the shower and I have a full-length mirror, so I thought you know, I’ve never really looked at it [the vagina]... so I sat down in front of the mirror, spread my legs and I went, ‘Yup, there are layers.’

You know, you don’t consciously think about it but the script makes you. And it was... oh, fascinating!

Eve Ensler says she’s now called ‘The vagina lady’ wherever she goes. Has that happened with you?

Dolly: All the time!

Mahabanoo: At Dubai airport, at Frankfurt airport…. In fact, when we started, we used to go in Dolly’s car and we called it The Vagina Express.

Dilnaz: And we store each other’s names on our phones like ‘Spatica Vagina’ or ‘Rasika Vagina’...

Avantika: A few months ago I was standing near Mantralay in Mumbai waiting for a friend to pick me up when this car stopped near me. A woman rolled down the window and asked for directions to some place. When I leaned, she looked at me and screamed, ‘You’re the vagina girl!’

So you guys like being identified with the vagina?

Dolly: You bet we do!

Avantika: Well, I am thinking of applying to the Limca Book of Records for having the most number of public orgasms before some 150,000 people! (Everyone bursts out laughing.)

You’ve Indianised Eve’s book.... The Jewish woman in The Flood becomes a Parsi lady and Dean Martin becomes Raj Kapoor. Or in Because He Liked To Look At It, Bob becomes Atul Kulkarni…

Mahabanoo: Actually there’s a lot of commonality between Parsis and Jews. And I know people like that. But I took a long time to convince Eve to make the Jewish lady a Parsi. Then when she came to India with Jane Fonda and all, and saw the response to the Parsi lady (piece), she realised that people here would empathise more with Indian characters.

Dilnaz: With Indian characters, these become their stories and people identify with them so much more.

You also refer to recent developments. Like the Delhi gang rape before doing the section on My Vagina Was My Village...

Mahabanoo: It was written by (son) Kaizaad after the Delhi gang rape.

Spatica: The day the rape happened we had a show and when Mahabanoo got the news she said, we’re going to incorporate this bit into that piece. Since then we’ve been doing that.

Mahabanoo: Eve herself is a victim of abuse by her father. Her mother never stood up for her. And Eve always says, a person going through such a kind of trauma has two choices — either you curl up in a corner and die or you use it positively. And she has done it to what effect!

Before starting the show, you spoke about the opposition you faced in Chennai. Any other instances?

Dolly: We’ve had industrialists come watch the play and say, ‘Your play was fantastic.’ So I ask, ‘Which play?’ And they say, ‘I can’t say the name.’ So there are those inhibitions.

Spatica: My dad still can’t say it. He’ll say, ‘My daughter is going to Calcutta for The... ahem… Monologues.’

Dolly: And we can’t perform in the Catholic auditoriums — St. Andrews and Sophia College. All the trustees have come and watched the play and they say, change the name to ‘The Monologues’. Though within the play we say the word ‘vagina’ some 150 times, they are fine with that but they don’t want it advertised as The Vagina Monologues.

Mahabanoo: And there are plays running in Mumbai that have such suggestive innuendos but those don’t face a problem.

Avantika: Bollywood movies are more suggestive than what we do, right? The way they gyrate…

Mahabanoo: One woman dancing and men ogling, that’s what I don’t like. I don’t mind a woman dancing, even if she’s naked. But 50 men pawing her, gaping at her.... So I say, like you do for smoking, announcing that the actors do not encourage smoking, filmmakers should give a disclaimer that this behaviour is not acceptable in everyday life.

Spatica: You know, men get very intimidated when women take control of their own sexuality. It’s easier to watch a woman being objectified, to watch a wet sari dance. But to actually watch a woman having an orgasm and enjoy it on stage is far more intimidating. If a guy is harassing you on the road, he expects you to do two things — either ignore him or get angry. Even when you get angry, it excites them. But if you go and say, ‘Oh is that what you want, do you want to see my bra?’, then they don’t know how to handle that. And the show helps you take control of such situations at a much deeper level.

Samhita Chakraborty

What about The Vagina Monologues production stood out for you? Tell t2@abp.in