Now titled The Vagina Monologues in Filipino, the entire play has been translated, and in some cases adapted, by award-winning playwrights Dr. Glecy Atienza, Dr. Joi Barrios and Luna Sicat. To perform the play’s different sketches are Arlene Borja, Pinky Marquez and Harlene Bautista-Sarmenta, with newcomer Missy Maramara understudying all the parts.
It was playwright Eve Ensler who suggested that New Voice Company translate the play into Filipino further bringing the production to women at the grassroots level and the youth.
"We only have to pay Eve Ensler $10 for each performance of the play in translation," said NVC executive director Terry Wilson.
NVC associate artistic director Rito Asilo, who is directing the Filipino version of the show, said TVM in Filipino has not only showed how beautiful the Filipino language is, but also bring the thoughts behind the play to a bigger audience.
"We cannot deny that some people get offended by this play," Asilo said. "In fact, some people who are close to us have been offended by this play. But we can never show a play where no one has been offended."
Wilson says NVC is inviting Ensler to come to Manila to celebrate the first anniversary of TVM in the country. If they’re lucky, she says they hope to convince Ensler to join the performance and perform some of the sketches herself.
Sicat says that in translating the play into Filipino, she allowed the play’s inherent poetry inform her work.
"I liked the poetry of the play," Sicat says. "I did not want to miss that quality in my own work."
Atienza says the process wasn’t just an artistic experience but also a personal one. She says she had difficulty sorting out the nuances between the regional words for vagina, likening the process to an "undressing." In Tagalog alone, the colloquial words for the female sex organ acquire a different meaning with a different inflection, she adds.
"Much of our discomfort with the word ‘vagina’ comes from the inhibition that is imposed on us by society, when it’s just an ordinary part of the body," Atienza adds.
The actresses assuming the roles in the Filipino version also went through a process of realization to learn their roles.
Marquez says she has to first understand her lines in Filipino before she can memorize her lines, since Tagalog is not her native tongue. The biggest challenge lies in convincing her family that doing the play will not personally affect her.
"I am an actress, and I am simply the vehicle of the playwright," Marquez stresses. "I had to rid myself of all my inhibitions and forget about myself when I’m learning and doing this play."
Borja had a hard time learning her lines, because she has a 5-year-old son at home.
"It was so hard to learn my lines," Borja says. "I had to tell my son that there was nothing wrong with the word vagina, that is was an ordinary body part, and that there was nothing bad with it since he came there. My neighbors have also gotten used to hearing me speaking my lines aloud. We’ve learned a lot from this play."
Bautista-Sarmenta says theatergoers should keep an open mind when they go and see the play.
"If people will just come to the theater with an open mind, they will learn that there’s something more to this play than what they’ve heard about," Bautista-Sarmenta says.
When NVC took the play to Cebu and Davao, some parts of the drama were unclear, particularly those with American references. In this translation, some of the dialogues have been placed in the context of Filipino experience to help the public understand it better.
In the sketch detailing the different terms for the vagina, the English euphemisms have been retained, while the regional terms have been introduced to enhance the episode. In the sketch involving the Bosnian rape victim, the scene has been set in the context of armed conflict in the southern Philippines.
The NVC production of TVM has already had 50 performances.
"Originally, we thought this would just have a weekend run, or four shows at the most," Wilson explains. "Nobody knew it would become this big."
It has toured Hong Kong twice and Singapore, and has been performed in Cebu and Davao. Even before the run in Davao, there were threats that some groups would picket the play.
"In Hong Kong, we had five walkouts," adds Wilson. "One woman was even shouting that the play was obscene as she was leaving the theater. But the surprise was, her husband stayed to finish it."
This early, NVC is planning to premiere the Filipino translation in London this December for the benefit of Filipino workers. It will be presented in cooperation with Gabriela.