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http://www.vaginamonologues.co.uk/default.asp?contentID=576

Based on author Eve Ensler’s ‘Vagina Interviews’ conducted with women from all around the world, this hilariously witty and moving collection of tales give voice to a chorus of lusty, outrageous, poignant, brave and thoroughly human stories.A staggering number of the world’s most famous & talented women, from Kate Winslet and Whoopi Goldberg to Sophie Dahl and Jerry Hall have chosen to take part in the show in New York, Los Angeles and London.

As sharp as Sex and the City, as unmissable as Friends and as funny as Smack the Pony, this riotous evening is the ultimate girls night out.

Cornelia Street Café in downtown New York. Five years later — on Feb. 10, 2001 — it’s going to Madison Square Garden for an all star extravaganza featuring Calista Flockhart, Jane Fonda (making her return to stage), Melissa Ethridge, Oprah Winfrey and more. Eve Ensler’s The Vagina Monologues is back — with three new monologues, a new introduction, and dozens of heartbreaking testimonials from young women around the country who have performed the monologues at their local colleges as part of a nation-wide campaign to stop violence against women, VDay. What started as a play has become a national phenomenon, the bible for a new generation of women. Together with The Vagina Monologues: The V-Day Edition, Villard is proud to publish Eve Ensler’s Necessary Targets, a groundbreaking play about women and war — Ensler’s first new play since her Obie-award-winning Vagina Monologues. Eve Ensler is a force of nature, a woman alive with passion and conviction. “You don’t just hook up with Eve,” Glenn Close has said, “You become part of her crusade. There’s a core of us who are Eve’s army.” “Eve Ensler can soar to Rabelesian heights or move us with quiet compassion,” writes Time. “She may not save the world, but what other playwrights even think of trying.”

The Arts Theatre
23 October 2001 – 25 July 2002

Eve Ensler’s striking stage piece continues at the Arts Theatre with a fresh cast. Elizabeth McGovern (House of Mirth), Nina Wadia (Goodness Gracious Me!) and Lauren Ward, a newcomer to the West End, keep up the work of challenging a taboo which many might think better left in darkness. Yet the Monologues are not man-hating radical feminist diatribes, but have their source in interviews with a wide range of women from elderly spinsters to “sex workers”, and from rightwing American Christians to lesbians. As their title frankly states, they focus on matters not usually mentioned in polite society, covering (it would be motre accurate to say uncovering) every aspect of the vagina and what pertains to it.
    The evening’s strength is that it addresses some exceedingly important issues – the genital mutilation of young girls in certain societies, and rape victims’ accounts of their ordeals in Bosnia and Kosovo. The latter was powerfully treated by Nina Wadia. It made a contrast with the character of much else of the evening’s offering, especially what was trashy or blunt merely for its shock value
    The Vagina Monologues tries to purge us of whatever phobias we might have about female sex organs and sexuality. But they make the implausible or at least too emphatic identification of women with their vaginas, and claim that women make things worse for themselves by failing to recognise this fact. They argue that women should look to themselves for happiness before looking to a man, and that this requires doing things that in essence replace men. They present promiscuity in women as normal, and employ graphic language throughout to drive home that point – which after the first five minutes ceases to be shocking and became tiresome instead
    The cast were ideal for this production. Nina Wadia is the strength among the three; she managed the most technically difficult monologues, among them one about a thousand orgasms and one that was heart-wrenchingly harrowing. Elizabeth McGovern and Lauren Ward bring much personality and emotional colour to their monologues. All three riveted the audience’s attention at critical points – but had some difficulty getting audience participation going, inviting them to shout various embarrassing pudendal mantras. Special mention must go to Bunny Christie’s set design, which makes one feel that one is back in the womb – and the peaceful backdrop of sky and flowers which make a strange but delightful contrast with the subject matter.
    It might be wise to think twice before dragging a man along with you – especially if he is the kind who avoids at all costs talking about “that time of month” and can’t even say the word “vagina”, its probably best to leave him at the pub.
    For some The Vagina Monologues can seem an awesome and liberating piece of theatre. It supports many women’s action groups; Eve Ensler was herself one of the founders of V day, opposing violence to women, on February 14th. Many famous women have supported her cause, themselves appearing in the Monologues – including Sophie Dahl, Jerry Hall, Kate Winslet, Cate Blanchett and Melanie Griffith.
    The Monologues try to penetrate the mystery at the core of a woman, and in the process leave nothing to the imagination. Leaving nothing to imagination is, Ensler believes, the show’s victory, although to those who think there are things best left unsaid it will seem a failure. Whichever way you look at it the show is overwhelming – and part of the reason is that it is frank beyond the point of crudity. If that fact does not put you off, the experience of seeing it could be well worth while.
Elizabeth Shenton

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