EMOTIONAL CREATURE. The secret life of girls around the world. Written by Eve Ensler. Directed by Jo Bonney, with Karabo Tshikube, Lara Lipschitz, Barileng Malibye, Vuyelwa Maluleke, Ratanang Mogotsi and Zakeeya Patel. Musical director Charl-Johan Lingenfelder. Choreography David Gouldie. At the Baxter Theatre from August 6 to 16. TRACEY SAUNDERS interviews Eve Ensler
IN 1996, despite the strides gained in awareness in previous decades, sexual violence against women and open conversations about female anatomy were not on the agenda at most dinner tables.
The Vagina Monologues helped to start conversations about women’s bodies and highlighted the use of rape as a weapon in war. In 2014 dinner tables are virtually obsolete, but the conversations are as vital as ever. Despite the scads of information and myriad channels of communication available via social media, some difficult conversations are still just that, difficult, and Ensler once again uses the medium of theatre to express issues that young women are facing today.
The performing arts has the ability to evoke visceral reactions to what can often be an academic discussion, something that the writer has been lauded for in her previous work, The Good Body, a one-woman play that dealt with women’s body image. Body image, sexual violence and female genital mutilation are some of the topics addressed by her production Emotional Creature.
The play forms part of the V-day initiative, which the activist began in 1998.
When asked if this work was a natural progression for her she replied that as she travelled around the world, “I witnessed so many of the obstacles that young women are facing in the world today. The conditions are so difficult but at the same time their incredible revolutionary spirit and emotional hearts and wisdom and energy are so fantastic, and that combination provoked me to write the piece.”
Recounting her experience when she was opening the City of Joy, a transformational leadership community for women survivors of violence, located in Bukavu, Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, Ensler said: “I had just come back from treatment for cancer. I was very frail and bald and scary. We do what we always do there when all else fails, we started to dance. I was again struck with the power of dance and the transformative revolutionary escalating power of dance. I have been obsessed by the statistic that one in three women on the planet will be beaten or raped and that idea of one billion women has haunted me. I suddenly imagined what it would be like if a billion women were dancing like this.”
That was where the idea of One Billion Rising, a global campaign to end violence against women and girls, was born.”
She has utilised the cathartic capacity of theatre in creating Emotional Creature. “I have been thinking about theatre a lot lately as I have a new play opening. I have been thinking about… everything that is going on in Gaza – the polarisation, the rage and the escalating violence and how arts is the one place I feel, like dance and theatre, where we can go to a higher place, where we can begin to communicate in different ways. Where we can hear stories and have experiences and have feelings that are not necessarily locked in to ideological positions and how crucial that is.”
The stories told in this piece rise above ideology and explore the global voices of young women, including those from suburban US to rural Kenya and a Chinese factory, among others.
Despite their very different locations the writer says: “One of the things that is true about girls everywhere is that there are certain mandates that are manifested everywhere. The mandate: not to be too emotional, not to be too big, not to be too present, not to take up too much space, not to feel too good about yourself, not be too strong. There is not one place in the world where that is not true. We are always doing something which is making girls less. That is true everywhere.”
Her narrative both during the play and in the discussions that take place afterwards dismantle those mandates.
Despite the cultural difference, there is commonality among young women globally and Ensler voiced her concern: “I think childhood sexual violence is so prevalent everywhere that we are talking about girls getting molested in their families at such young ages everywhere. I haven’t been in a country where I haven’t seen enormous childhood sexual violence.”
Speaking about the changes in attitudes in the 18 years since she first raised the issue, the activist said: “When I started doing this play nobody was talking about violence against women except the very brave women who were doing that work. It was not front page news. It was not something that masses of people in America or India or Nigeria rose up about. It just wasn’t talked about. We know now that violence against women has absolutely become a central issue that is in the major discourse. I don’t know whether there is more violence now or we are just hearing about it more. What I do know is it is still here. Yes, we are talking about it. Yes, we have broken the silence on it. Have we ended it? No absolutely not.”
Quoting Emma Goldman, a political activist, Ensler says “If I can’t dance, I don’t want to be part of your revolution.”
She speaks with equal passion about dance, drumming, the tyranny of patriarchy, theatre and the rights of women. There will be dancing in this revolution and Ensler urges us to join her.
l Tickets are R75. Shows are at 11am and 6.30pm Monday to Friday and 2pm and 6.30pm on Saturday. Call Computicket at 0861 915 8000. For school bookings, call 021 680 3962. Ensler will also talk about about her book In The Body of the World on Saturday at 4pm – free.