THE PENIS MONOLOGUES
S & M’s Cocktail and Lounge Bar, 176 Cuba St, Wellington
16/02/2013 - 09/03/2013
Production Details
REAL STORIES WRITTEN BY REAL MEN ABOUT REAL PENISES
The first thing Truss says about this piece is, “Obviously it’s my version of the Vagina Monologues” and he adds with a laugh, “but I’ve never read or seen The Vagina Monologues.”
He continues, “I was in the states when they first came out and it was being performed everywhere, from Broadway to women’s shelters and I thought how great it was to talk about things that don’t always get voiced in the open. And in fact that’s still going on… the fear and non communication around ‘private parts’… interesting choice of words right? In the States recently a female representative was banned from her own capital building because she said the word vagina on the house floor and they were legislating on abortion!”
He continues, “Even though in most cultures men are still dominant that doesn’t mean that they think or are self reflective, let alone soft or vulnerable, and for me The Penis Monologues is a response to that climate and condition.”
Like Eve Ensler, author of The Vagina Monologues, Truss sent out a call to blokes asking them to write original works based on their experiences, stories and relationship with their penis. “What I got back has been amazing, there’re confessionals and rants and raves, sex tales and facts, I’ve assembled a joke section and… well, it’s quite a mix.”
Also like The Vagina Monologues, Truss’s show can be produced in many ways, from a solo evening or a reading, to a performance with multiple actors. There are many offshoots of this concept, “The DickLogues”, “The Viagra Monologues” which was produced in Wellington a few years past, there was a spoof of Ensler’s work in the States as well, but Truss is clear: “This is not a satire of Ensler’s work, nor a comment on it, I was inspired by the idea of talking about something that doesn’t always get talked about.”
This will be the world premiere of Truss’s “The Penis Monologues” and this incarnation is a one man show where each monologue is told by a different character, from the lisping queen to the testosterone charged stud.
Following in the Fringe’s footprint of performances happening throughout Wellington, Truss set about to find “male dominated spaces that aren’t used as theatres.” His response was less than favorable. “I went to at least a dozen spaces that cater almost exclusively to men, from clothing stores to various men-focused-clubs, and the general response was, ‘this is not inline with our product.’ One person even said ‘I don’t want to be associated with penises even though this is a men’s clothing store’.”
Truss ended up finding the perfect spot though, the basement of S and M’s bar on Cuba St. as he says, “it’ll be great, the audience can grab a cocktail and hear some cocktales, or have a cocktail and grab a cocktale if so inspired.”
SHOWTIMES 8pm all four Saturdays in the Fringe Festival,
February 16, 23 March 2 & 9
S and M’s cocktail and lounge bar 176 Cuba St.
TICKETS: General $15, concession/groups (6 or more) $13, Fringe Addict Card $10
Email windypae@gmail.com with name, number of tickets required and date of show
or buy them at Made Marion, 17 Marion St.
or on the night of the show at the door.
Limited number of tickets available per show.
For more information check out windyPAE on Facebook.
1 hr 30 mins; Saturdays only
Despite its length I don’t feel much at all
Review by John Smythe 17th Feb 2013
Yesterday was a busy one for Tommy Truss from the USA, now resident in Wellington. At 2pm he got his Windy Performing Arts Ensemble (WindyPAE) on the road – the city pavements, that is – with Wheels of Justice. At 8pm he was in the downstairs space of S and M’s Cocktail and Lounge bar premiering his Penis Monologues.
Well, not his ‘cock tales’ exactly. Standing, sitting on either of a couple of stools, or interfacing with an electric keyboard, he recounts a selection of the penis-related missives he received after he’d “sent out a call to blokes asking them to write original works based on their experiences, stories and relationship with their penis.”
‘Paul’ segues from Raquel Welch to his well-endowed boyfriends’ ‘Moby Dicks’. ‘Ben’ sings the multitudinous names for penises. ‘Gary’ discovers, through biblical investigation, that he has been circumcised while ‘Rick’ (or was it his brother?) recalls the first time he saw an uncircumcised penis.
‘Tony’ recounts a collision between his crotch and his bike’s handlebars. ‘Marvin’ tells the family joke about what he said, aged three, when taking a bath with his sister. ‘Matty’ remembers being taught how to pee by his Dad.
Recurring throughout are ‘Barney’s fascinating facts about the reproductive organs of various creatures and ‘Willy’ also offers a statistical analysis of the properties of the human penis and all the flows from it.
‘Kyle’ reveals how he dealt with the fact of his smallness at college. ‘Mike’ shares how being out of work has affected his balls. ‘Jerry’ offers a poem …
‘Tyler’ from Texas and now in New York links The Little Prince with a vivid account of his penile piercing and a subsequent experience with an also-pierced girlfriend. ‘Adam’ riffs on his changing relationship with his cock since he got AIDS. Bi-sexual ‘Dean’ apologises to his for not loving it enough.
A slew of penis-related jokes makes for a change of pace in preparation for ‘Bobby’s bizarre and increasingly harrowing account of father/son/brother hand-job incest and its consequences. ‘Keith’ mistakenly attributes “The pen is mightier than the sword” to Shakespeare (it was Edward Bulwer-Lytton in his 1839 play Richelieu; Or the Conspiracy) before opining about man-made phallic structures as instruments of intrusion.
Another ‘Bobby’, from remote West Virginia, admits to the scarring results of his adolescent relationship with the sensuous warmth of gopher dirt and then gopher holes. In discovering what pleasures her boyfriend, ‘Julie’ discovers the pleasures of wearing and using a ‘strap on’. And ‘James’ completes the litany with a poignant account of how his otherwise impaired wife pleasures him most.
Billed in the programme as a one hour show it in fact takes 90 minutes and could do with some trimming. Either that or Truss could bring a couple more performers in – on rotation, perhaps, as in Eve Ensler’s The Vagina Monologues – to vary the tone and presentation and even allow for a bit of interaction.
As it was on opening night (it only plays Saturdays by the way), despite there being a small audience in a small venue – a long narrow space alongside a row of booth seating – there was no direct contact with the audience. In noting this makes it significantly different from The Vagina Monolgues, I should add that Truss is clear in his media release: “This is not a satire of Ensler’s work, nor a comment on it, I was inspired by the idea of talking about something that doesn’t always get talked about.”
Truss is clearly a good performer when he’s ‘on’. When he personifies and fluently owns a contributor’s story, moments of insight, understanding and even empathy occur. But when he stumbles while reading the words of others, or is not speaking from ‘within’ the experience, it’s matter-of-fact and somewhat distancing. More rehearsal will undoubtedly improve things at every level.
An inevitable comparison has to be made with Geraldine Brophy’s 2007 gem, The Viagra Monologues, in which a cast of three delivered 15 monologues for diverse male characters, from toddlers through childhood and adolescence to adulthood; from brotherhood through parenthood to grandparenthood; from a gay man who sells his body to women to a celibate priest; a self-absorbed wanker to a lonely veteran; a taciturn Kiwi bloke to a robust European septuagenarian …
I described that show as “a liberating experience”. I get no such result from The Penis Monologues. It’s quite interesting but despite its length I don’t feel much at all.
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Comments
John Brennan February 19th, 2013
The Penis Monologues by Tommy Truss of WindyPAE is not light theater, though I had some laughs and chortles throughout. These personal stories (not Tommy's stories, but stories he solicited) appeal to men and women: men for hearing that their relationship to their penis is not as complex as they might think, and women who want to understand more about those who have penises. These stories trancend gender, and they are stories from all genders.
Go see The Penis Monologues and decide for yourself. The underground location at S and M's Cocktail and Lounge bar on Cuba is a great spot for this Fringe show.
Steve Prenzlauer February 18th, 2013
Hmmm, (scratching my head) I really think this review missed the mark to some degree. Although, I agree that some more rehearsals and direction may be in order, the stories are raw and moving and so revealing. I would have liked a different introduction at the beginning of the show. In this review, I also think that there was too much comparison of other shows for me. Also, there is some inaccurate info such as "Dean" who is transgender and his contribution moved me to tears knowing this (It was not about being bisexual).Tommy Truss was clear that this was not the Vagina Monologues and perhaps this show should have had a different name. Yet, folks that I talked to after the show were so moved and in awe of the connection that Tommy made with the subjects (gay, straight, bi, trans, male, female). Also, folks applauded him for the risks he took in this performance. The stories are from the heart; the subject that connects them is the penis. Definitely, on the "fringe". This is an opportunity to see exceptional and unique theatre in Wellington.