“It’s a fantastic play, it’s very inspiring and we wanted to bring that
energy into the parliament,” Franziska Brantner of the German Green
party, one of nine female MEPs from across the political spectrum who
will star in the play, told Real Time Brussels. “Women shouldn’t be
ashamed of talking about their sexuality, either in terms of pleasure,
or in terms of being a victim.”
The series of monologues, first performed in New York in 1996, is based
on a series of interviews with women about the most intimate part of
their body. Now the MEPs, including France’s Mariel Gallo, Belgium’s
Isabelle Durant and Portugal’s Ana Gomes will follow in the footsteps
of Kate Winslet, Whoopi Goldberg and Jerry Hall in performing the play
on stage.
However, not all of their colleagues are happy about the situation.
“This sort of thing does not belong in the European Parliament… The
ladies should move their performance to a theater,” MEP Werner Langen,
from Angela Merkel’s CDU party, told
German tabloid Bild-Zeitung (presumably
he also objects to the topless photos the newspaper carries on its
front page every day). “I call on Parliament President Martin Schulz to
withdraw his approval for this event.”
In any case, the performance is due to take place in the Parliament’s
Espace Yehudi Menuhin, which hosts events as diverse as Holocaust
Remembrance Day, talks on oil and gas exploration in the Arctic, and
performances of early music and dance ensembles. It’s hard to see how
performing an award-winning play, albeit an attention-grabbing one, is
at odds with the diverse other uses for the room. If the idea of a
theatre inside a parliament is confusing, just let it go — the European
Parliament also boasts
several bars, a gym, a hairdresser and a meditation room.
It’s a challenge when those with vaginas,
No longer put up with – in silence,
This kind of old tripe,
From him and his type,
But speak up loud and clear against violence
The MEPs have devoted the event not just to V-Day, but also have a set
of political demands including ensuring EU funding continues for
programs to end violence against women, and ensuring the pan-European
‘victims package’ contains specific measures for victims of domestic
violence.
All tickets for the event have been reserved and Ms. Ensler is scheduled
to give closing remarks; now all the performers have to do is get ready
to deliver lines such as “What would your vagina wear, if it got
dressed?” instead of their usual “Voting begins now on the amendments.”
“We’ve been rehearsing, everyone got to read the part they wanted,” Ms.
Brantner, speaking from Berlin, says of the project. “We’re not
professional actors, but we are all used to being on stage, none of us
is afraid of speaking in public."
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