To print this page, select "Print" from the File menu of your browser salon.com > Health & Body Feb. 10, 2000 URL: http://www.salon.com/health/sex/urge/world/2000/02/10/morissette The truth about vaginas After playing God in the film "Dogma," rock's goddess of angst will star in an off-Broadway play about female genitalia. - - - - - - - - - - - - By Hank Hyena Alanis Morissette has wailed, whined and raged about her crotch's emotions on innumerable international stages with her band Sexual Chocolate ever since her "Jagged Little Pill" album arched into mega-platinum sales. She's also exhibited intimate areas of her flesh in her music videos. So it's not surprising that the carnal Canadian's next creative venture will be to costar in an off-Broadway theater production of "The Vagina Monologues." Aside from an all-star benefit performance last year, the Obie Award-winning play written by Eve Ensler has previously been performed exclusively as a one-woman show by the author in New York, Berlin, London and Jerusalem. Next week, reports Tuesday's Ottawa Citizen, the Westside Theater in Manhattan will restage the text by dividing up the monologues equally between three different actresses. Various casts will walk the boards for two weeks. Alanis is slated for March 21 through April 2. Winona Ryder, Rhea Perlman, Lara Flynn Boyle, Erica Jong, Ricki Lake, Camryn Manheim, Marlo Thomas, Marisa Tomei and Rosie Perez are also scheduled to appear. A recent "V-Day" (Vagina Day) benefit performance to aid organizations that fight violence against women featured readings by Susan Sarandon, Whoopi Goldberg and Calista Flockhart. "The Vagina Monologues" was created to crack the sexual taboo that surrounds any discussion of vaginal issues. The script is swollen with hysterical and imaginative anecdotes and farcical orgasmic moans, but there are also elements of tragedy. Ensler has included, for example, excerpts from her interview with a Bosnian rape victim. Fans familiar with Morissette's lyrics and rumored promiscuity know that their horny heroine won't be inhibited when she delivers her daring lines. She's also no acting novice. Morissette personified God in the recent film "Dogma" and when she was a mere 10-year-old sprite she starred on the children's cult classic program, "You Can't Do That On Television." salon.com | Feb. 10, 2000   - - - - - - - - - - - - About the writer Hank Hyena is a columnist for SF Gate, and a frequent contributor to Salon.