Fonda Performs "Vagina Monologues" in India

[Guest guest]

BOMBAY, March 6 - Oscar-winning actress Jane Fonda will perform in

Bombay Monday in the famed play, The Vagina Monologues, "to send a

message against exploitation of women and girls in India," the

play's director said.

 

Fonda will arrive in India's entertainment and financial capital

Sunday, a day before her stage performance that will coincide with

International Women's Day, director Mahabanoo Mody Kotwal told AFP

Saturday.

 

The Vagina Monologues made its name in 1997 as an off-Broadway play

that explores female sexuality and strength through a series of

vignettes at times funny, sad, graphic or horrifying.

 

The piece initiated V-Day, a global movement to stop violence

against women and girls.

 

"Jane is coming to perform with us and with her presence, the plight

of Indian women and especially the girl child, will be highlighted

internationally," Kotwal said.

 

Fonda, who has two Academy Awards, will decide on her role in the

play after reaching Bombay, Kotwal said.

 

"A veteran actress like her does not need any acting rehearsals,"

she said.

 

Few actress have had as many metamorphoses as Fonda, the daughter of

Hollywood legend Henry Fonda.

 

Her first husband, French film director Roger Vadim, decided to mold

her into a sex goddess in a set of films of which the best known

was "Barbarella".

 

She was later involved in anti-US war activities in the Vietnam era,

formed her own production company and starred intelligent and

topical films. In the 1980s she started the aerobic exercise craze

which was popular in India.

 

Fonda will spend three days in Bombay during which she will visit

shelters for abused women and girls' orphanages, a report said.

 

Kotwal said Fonda would seek to highlight the condition of girl

children and women in India where female infanticide is still

practised.

 

"I hope that people in our country realise that it is very important

to maintain the equilibrium of boy and girl children in our

society," Kotwal said.

 

Fonda, who visited India in the 1960s and toured New Delhi, Bombay,

Sikkim and Calcutta, is expected to spend at least five days in the

country.

 

"India taught me I was not a hippie but basically an activist," the

Times of India quoted Fonda, 66, as saying. "I feel violence against

women must end. Without it, the world would be a different place."

 

Source: UTUSAN MELAYU, Kuala Lumpur. "Hollywood Oscar winner Jane

Fonda to fight for abused Indian women"

URL: http://www.utusan.com.my/utusan/content.asp?

y=2004&dt=0307&pub=Utusan_Express&sec=Entertainment&pg=en_04.htm