Eve Ensler’s Vagina Monologues, which won the Obie Award in New York in 1997, is a worldwide success. It is still running at the Westside Theater in New York. The actresses who have performed in the piece so far include Glenn Close, Winona Ryder, Susan Sarandon, Whoopi Goldberg, Kate Winslett, Melanie Griffith and Ricki Lake.

Viviane De Muynck, who is internationally esteemed as an actress and has been a permanent member of Needcompany for seven years, chose this play when she was invited to direct at the Schauspielhaus in Hamburg. This production opened there on 6th December 2000. It works on the same principle as the performances in New York. In the initial version, Viviane De Muynck will play a part, together with Marleen Diekhoff and Anne Weber (of the Schauspielhaus company). After that, various well-known women from the worlds of the arts and politics will be invited to perform one of the monologues. The music is supplied by Olaf Casimier, a renowned German jazz double-bass player.

‘Viviane De Muynck is like an opera diva: considerable vocal power, plump body, a presence that fills the room. The lasting impression made by her skill as an actress and her female self-awareness, together with plenty of sex appeal, are expressed to the full in her directing debut.’
(Christine Dössel, Süddeutsche Zeitung, 8/12/2000)

As far as the piece itself is concerned, the Süddeutsche Zeitung comes to the following conclusion: ‘If your vagina could sing, which song would it choose? De Muynck’s answer is definite: ‘Another one bites the dust’.