Posted on 03/12/2004 12:03:01 PM PST by swarthyguy
Eve Ensler, the author of the much talked about Vagina Monologue , has declared Mumbai to be a 'vagina city', and now Alyque Padamsee wants people to hear the other side.
"I loved Vagina Monologues but, I thought it was too one sided, with disparaging comments about the male organ and men. Men just didn't get to say anything in that play," says Padamsee.
As a 'homage' to the cult play, the advertising and theatre guru is busy with directing Penis Dialogues .
Laced with humour, the play talks about the organ as an instrument of procreation, recreating and urination.
"One vignette has four men in a urinal and one of them can't pee. He has the shy bladder syndrome or paruresis ," informs Nitin Batra, one of the three playwrights of Penis Dialogues.
Anish Trivedi and Pawan Kumar are the other two writers and the ensemble includes Gary Richardson, Bhairavi Goswami, Gaurav Sharma and Madhuri Bhatia.
With vignettes like Small is Beautiful , Bobbiting and Penis Audition , the play takes a tongue-in-cheek, yet balanced look at men and their members.
"It's a savage instrument in rape cases and at the same time, it's also a nuisance. It keeps getting in the way when a man's trying to date a woman. Penis Dialogues tries to look into the psychology of the penis," says Padamsee.
The play opens on March 21 at the NGMA.
For Anish Trivedi, who is also a part of the cast, the penis is not the central character, unlike the Vagina Monologues . "The parts that I have written are about relationships between men and women or men and men."
As for how this provocative play would be received, Trivedi, like the others in the production, is not too worried. "It might not be a message that everyone wants to hear."
Madhuri Bhatia, actress, says, "Talking about sex and sexuality is still being considered vulgar and negative and that's exactly what this play is trying to do away with."
No Political Correctness police set up in India yet.
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