The Vagina Monologues

Synopsis

The play had a hit off Broadway run in New York in the 1996/97 season, winning a Drama Desk Award nomination and an Obie Award. The play has subsequently been performed on tour in America with great success. 'The Vagina Monologues' was the centrepiece for V-Day, a gala theatrical and musical charity event, which took place at the Hammerstein Ballroom in New York on Valentine's Day 1998. Artists taking part in this event included Whoopi Goldberg, Winona Ryder, Glenn Close and Susan Sarandon. The Vagina Monologues, subtitled "An Anthropological Exploration", reveals a series of different women's stories and experiences involving their genitalia. The material was gathered from hundreds of intimate interviews, conducted by Ensler, in which women were asked probing questions such as "If it your vagina could talk, what would it say?".

Our Review:

6 November 2009

More than a decade since it was originally written by Eve Ensler, The Vagina Monologues continues to be as celebrated and controversial as ever. Both applauded for it's feminist intent and criticised for it's handling of statutory rape and male-female relationships, ths show now forms an integral part of the V-day campaign against violence towards women.

The monologues were compiled following hundreds of interviews with women and developed into a series emotional tales that explore all things vagina; menstruation, childbirth, rape, smear tests and orgasms to name but a few. Each speech is interspersed with some semi-scripted 'chat' and a little audience participation that elicits a lot of laughter.

The whole evening has an atmosphere of 'girl talk' in the pub with friends; glasses of Chardonnay should be handed out at the door. This sense of sisterhood naturally extends to the inevitably female-dominated audience, drawing t...

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