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:

7 April 2005

When Sharon Osbourne and daughter Aimee pulled out of The Vagina Monologues a week before curtain-up due to ill health (see News, 4 Apr 2005), director Irina Brown was tearing her hair out. “It’s been mad,” she says of trying to replace the X-Factor star and her daughter, “I’m just lucky that The Vagina Monologues can draw on such an amazing pool of women.”

The glittering legacy of leading women includes Kate Winslet, Gillian Anderson, Sophie Dahl, and Cate Blanchett. And this time the excellent Rula Lenska and Diane Parish have come to the rescue and joined [Jenny Éclair] in the West End revival.

Brown directed the original London production at the request of writer Eve Ensler. “It was like nothing I’d ever read before,” says Brown, “how could I refuse?” Ensler wrote her anthropological exploration before the Sex in the City generation when there was no culture of women talking abou...

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Latest User Review

Vanessa Fry - 1 November 2009:

I went with a group of female friends. I saw a few women walk out during the show and I wish I'd had the courage to do the same. I found it extremely embarrassing. Not the sex. Embarrassing because it was so bad, so purile and tedious. I felt like I was at one of those degrading Hen Nights you hear about. It wasn't above my head - no. It was beneath me, way beneath me. Worst thing I have ever seen. If people get a kick screaming CUNT at the top of their voices over and over again then good luck to them. Me - I've got better things to do with my time. I also thought the piece about female circumcision was totally inappropriate for this production although it was well done and was the only thing that I found shocking. ...

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