Award-winning Samoan playwright Papalii Sia Figiel’s Samoan adaptation of the play The Vagina Monologue opens this Friday at the Galumoana Theatre.

The Vagina Monologues is an episodic play written in 1996 by Eve Ensler. The play explores consensual and nonconsensual sexual experiences, body image, genital mutilation, direct and indirect encounters with reproduction, vaginal care, menstrual periods, prostitution, and several other topics through the eyes of women of various ages, races, sexualities, and other differences.

The play started creating controversies even before it opened here. Papalii spoke to Dr. Vanya Taulealo.

VT: Why did you choose to stage such a controversial play in Samoa?

P.S.F: Ensler's play is about what it means to be a woman and the challenges women face as sexual beings in patriarchal societies such as ours. Not a day goes by since my return home that I haven't opened the newspaper and seen a story of sexual violation of a woman, or a girl and the ages seem to be younger and younger, and it is heartbreaking. But instead of wallowing in heartbreak and instead of writing or staging safe plays, I wanted to stage one that doesn't only talk about the violations women face but also the joys women experience when they are engaged in healthy consensual sexual relations which is something to be celebrated particularly here in Samoa and on International Women's Day no less.

V.T: How do you think a conservative country like Samoa will reconcile our Christian values with a play called The Vagina Monologues?

P.S.F: My favourite book in the bible is the Songs of Solomon which I think are God's love letters to us. And yet it's the least used book in sermons here. I don't think God wants us to lead miserable sexual lives based on anxiety and fear. When a nine-year-old girl is raped by her father, what does that say about our values? And which part of the human anatomy does that ugly, violent act usually take place? I hope that answers your question.

V.T: So what you are saying is we live in a society that promotes Christian beliefs but in reality is not following the teachings of the church? Please comment on this?

P.S.F: I had a saofai late last year in Sapapalii, Savaii with close to 100 members of my kin. The pastor's sermon was about the adulterous woman and he who has no sin, to throw the first stone. I felt like he was speaking directly to me. He said you are now leaders for your aiga. Lead with compassion. That was spoken with mana and wisdom and it moved me to tears. Theatre’s interest, which is also mine, is to illuminate the questions for the audience, not feed them the answers. Let’s just say I have minimal interest in carrying stones these days.

V.T: I understand what we will see on Friday night at Galumoana Theatre to be an adaptation of Ensler's play. Please can you enlarge on this?

P.S.F: You can say the V word so many times and it's just not my cup of tea. As much as I respect the place it comes from which is of hurt. Pain. Suffering and reclaiming the self. I adapted TVM with our aesthetics as Samoans in mind. Samoan theatre aka faleaiku is very liberal with the humour its practitioners use. However, the minute you swear is the minute the audience knows that you don't have the linguistic dexterity to entertain them. John Kneubuhl and I had conversations about this. And I've never forgotten it. I've added our local humour, our faleaiku to the script which is as essential as breathing. Plus, excerpts from my novels, where we once belonged, The Girl in the Moon Circle, They Who Do Not Grieve, and Freelove which tell my mother’s story and my own.

V.T: When you say your sister and The Vagina Monologues saved your life, what do you mean?

PSF: Each of us deals with trauma in our own way. Some women get beaten daily. Others like me, get raped once but we think of it daily. It was 21 years ago in a high-end hotel in Waikiki and yet it never really leaves me. And I am an overthinker by nature. My guilt comes from the fact that I naively thought rapists are strange men who attack you in alleys or bushes.! My intuition was so out of whack from what had happened to me as a child that I didn’t see the signs. Afterwards, I lost all value for my body. In fact, I utterly loathed it. Felt worse than an abandoned dog. Beyond worthless. Which made me balloon to nearly 400 lbs at one point. Long story short, that self-loathing led to several suicide attempts and to eventual homelessness and a 3-month stint at a mental hospital with electroconvulsive treatments. I was so utterly ashamed of myself that I just wanted to disappear. I kept telling myself, what if it leaks out that I was raped? How embarrassing! My sister saw me lose my powers, becoming a vegetable basically. Wake up Sia! You are a descendant! O oe o le suli o Gafagua! Snap out of it! Around the same time, I found a copy of Ensler’s play. Which centres around the lived experience of women of all ethnic backgrounds. Ensler's play gave me a glimmer of hope. Of how you can transform trauma and alchemize it for yourself and others. I saw myself in her monologues and I knew women here would resonate with it. So, join us on Friday!

V.T:  What do you expect from men who come to see your adaptation to take away from it?

PSF: To have empathy for the men I will be depicting and their mental health challenges. To reflect on their own vital roles in forming the characters of their daughters and how that influences the personalities of the men, their daughters will eventually end up with. To laugh out loud at my faleaiku genius or fiapoko attempts! AND I think I can sing! At least the neighbourhood cats think so. I expect men to find genuine joy in the creative talents of a woman. Not all men are brutes. There are warriors out there who have been relentless in their fight for women's rights and social justice. It is my hope that whoever attends should show up with their capes. Besides, I have limited parking. So, if you can fly out after the show, kudos to you bro!