Review of the Vagina Monologues/Barbados

The Frank Collymore Hall was pulsing, vibrating, raving, crying, retaliating, and gushing self-affirmation when the Vagina Monologues came to the stage last Sunday evening, in a celebration of V-day hosted by the National Organization of Women NOW. The Vagina Monologues is not only a revolutionary, provoking and eye-opening evening of entertainment, it is a bold step towards increasing awareness about violence against women and girls, and securing financial resources for organizations working towards stopping such violence and helping its survivors. V-Day was born in 1998 out of the Monologues, as its creator and performer Eve Ensler heard in her travels hundreds of women’s stories of rape, incest, domestic battery and genital mutilation. She joined with a group of women to found V-day, a global movement to end violence against women. The V in V-Day represents Valentine, Violence, and of course, Vagina; and this word resounded proudly throughout the auditorium as Varia Williams, Kaye Foster, Amanda Cumberbatch and Cecily Spencer-Cross stepped soundlessly into the lives of different women from across the globe, to share the latter’s experiences, or lack thereof, with their vaginas.

At the opening of the show, the cast burst excitedly into the theatre, clapping in time and adding their own voices to a pre-recorded background chant of the title of the presentation. While the song itself lacked melody and unity with the subject, and suspiciously resembled a hastily-composed signature piece, it served to