Every Day’s V-Day

‘‘Everywhere we go, there’s a queue for tickets. And women come later and tell us their stories,’’ reveals Ensler, who continues to be moved by each staging. ‘‘It’s so interesting to see what actors do with the play, it says who they are. I learn more about different cultures from their interpretations.’’ As for Mahabanoo Mody-Kotwal’s local take, ‘‘It’s very funny, very poetic and the actors are so committed.’’

While this is just her second visit to India, Ensler has often been to Pakistan, where the play’s been staged in Lahore, Islamabad and Karachi. ‘‘Though so close, there’s a subtle difference between the women in both countries,’’ she says, carefully choosing her words. ‘‘Pakistan has strong, fiercely independent women too. But there’s a completely different feel, as one’s in a religious State.’’

Ensler was last in Mumbai researching for her new play, The Good Body, soon premiering in Seattle. ‘‘Two years ago, while staring at my 40-plus tummy, I began obsessing about it—and realised how, in their minds, women hate their bodies,’’ she recalls. What followed were interviews across 14 countries. ‘‘World over, women want to change their bodies: wax, bleach, dye, botox, liposuction, vaginal tightening. And western ideas of beauty are influencing all cultures,’’ she points out.

Her two weeks in Mumbai were spent interviewing beauty pageant winners and gym goers. ‘‘While older women were comfortable with their bodies, youngsters were buying into imported ideas of good looks,’’ she feels. The resultant monologue, Jadi (Fat), sketches a woman who exercises to stay fit but prefers her overweight body to that of starving Miss Worlds.

Ensler also hopes to return with a full-fledged production of her Necessary Targets, after a successful reading with the Mumbai actors and their Pakistani counterparts, Ayesha Ahlam and Nighat Rizvi. The play, based in a Bosnian ‘rape camp’, enacts an interaction between refugees and two Americans therapists, with their own agendas. ‘‘Everywhere we’ve performed it—except America—women have told us, it was so close to home,’’ she emphasises.

The inclusion of the therapist character’s exploitative edge was deliberate too. ‘‘It’s a constant dilemma with me too. How do I honour these stories, these women who open up and share themselves with me? How do I give back to them?’’

Fund-raisers and vaginal workshops, tackling repression and rape, give her some answers. But within the Monologues too, the dilemma continues, with certain pieces that seemingly wash over child abuse and the sordidness of prostitution. ‘‘It may not be politically correct but I like the complexity and ambiguity of these pieces. Life’s not meant to be easy, breaking down into clear lines,’’ asserts the playwright. ‘‘I’ve moved on to make documentaries, write other plays and books. But V-Day is my life.’’