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 The TheatreguideLondon Review

The Vagina Monologues
New Ambassadors Theatre, then Arts, 2001-2; tours with varying trios of actresses; Wyndham's Theatre with rotating trios, Spring 2005; frequent tours thereafter

Eve Ensler sits in front of a microphone and talks for 90 minutes about, um, you know, down there.

The poet-playwright-activist has interviewed hundreds of women about their feelings and thoughts about their sexual parts, and has constructed a series of composite monologues - comic, sad, angry and celebratory - in their voices. (Incidentally, the title is a bit misleading, the discussion extending indiscriminately to vulvae, clitori, labiae, the whole genital machinery.)

Some of the bits are admittedly a little silly, like the list of responses to her questions: "If your vagina got dressed, what would it wear?" (everything from a silk kimono to combat boots) and "If it could talk, what would it say?" ("Slow down!"). Some go for easy laughs, like the list of euphemisms categorized by city ("split knish" in Philadelphia, "Gladys Siegelmann" in New York?), or easy sentiment, like the 72-year-old woman reflecting on a life of pretending it wasn't there.

The words of a Bosnian rape victim are, inevitably, deeply moving, but the most effective pieces are the celebratory ones. A woman-power ridicule of feminine hygiene products and gynecological examinations ("Warm that duck-lipped thing first!") gets cheers from the women in the audience, as does the group recitation of a paean to the clitoris. The high points come at the end, when a hilarious catalogue of types of orgasmic moan is followed up by a poetic celebration of the wonder of childbirth.

Inevitably, some of the audience laughter comes simply from hearing the word spoken aloud so many times. But there is also unquestionably something empowering, especially to women, in the breaking of verbal and emotional taboos.

Surprisingly, since she has been doing this show for almost five years, Eve Ensler is not a particularly polished performer. She reads much of her material from a pile of cue cards held in her lap, and she begins with rather lifeless and mechanical recitations. She clearly needs the affirmation of audience response to relax her, and one of the reasons the last half of the show is the stronger is her looser, more confident delivery.

As in other cities where it has played, the plan is to transfer and extend the run after Ensler's four-week stay, with a string of well-known actresses taking their turns in it. There's no doubt that they will each have performance skills stronger than the author's. But the authenticity and personal quality she brings to it make a strong case for seeing it during her brief run.

Gerald Berkowitz

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Review - The Vagina Monologues - Ambassadors 20