Vagina Monologues

The Vagina Monologues is made up of a varying number of monologues read by a varying number of women initially, Eve Ensler (the author of the Vagina Monologues performed every monologue herself, with subsequent performances featuring three actresses, and more recent versions featuring a different actress for every role. Every monologue somehow relates to the vagina, be it through sex, love, rape, menstruation, mutilation, masturbation, birth, orgasm, the variety of names for the vagina, or simply as a physical aspect of the female body. A recurring theme throughout the piece is the vagina as a tool of female empowerment, and the ultimate embodiment of individuality.

· The set was nothing spectacular. The actor’s simple performed monologues on the stage.

· The costumes were really costume; just people in street clothes. They really didn’t help with identity, or didn’t give a distinction to the characters on stage.

· The lightning and sound effects put this show over the top, the different lighting cues on each monologue showed the importance of each crisis or direr situation for each woman who was simply a victim of the struggle. The sound was only utilized for various dramatic effects in each monologue; for example women raped against their will. For this particular play the characters didn’t have distinct names; therefore I must go by monologue names in order to decipher who is who. Of some monologues that were good were; Some monologues, like the story of a young woman who was sexually abused by male relatives but then found redemption (and intense pleasure) with her first lesbian experience, combine drama and comedy. Ms. Ensler finds humor in the use of hand mirrors at get-to-know-your-anatomy workshops (''I have lost my clitoris! I shouldn't have worn it swimming!''), an elderly woman's dreams about Burt Reynolds, the indignities of pelvic exams and one particular four-letter word for vagina that she has decided should be a term