The Vagina Monologues
The Vagina Monologues
By Eve Ensler
Directed by Gina Roma
Footlights Theater, Orlando FL
Just the title “Vagina Monologs” brings fear into the hearts of people who spent most of gym class discussing nothing but the female nether region. Deliberately provocative sub-titles do little to salve the fears of those who fear talking about sex outside of the context of afternoon trash TV, but this production mixes high minded ideals with spotty acting to add members to the Vagina Warrior Tribe. The monologs derive from extensive interviews with women over several years and several continents. There are first person stories like “The Flood” (Rebecca Colburn) which describes the horror of a young girl’s first period. Having to on her first date so embarrasses her she spends rest of her life ignoring her “Down There.” Other monologs composite many interviews into one story like the “Wear and Say List”. Here women were asked how they would dress their vaginas, and if it could speak 2 words, what would they be? A few were deeply disturbing, including “My Vagina Was My Village” (Carol Palumbo) which recounts horrors of massive and organized rape in the Bosnian War. And more that a few celebrated sex as a defining element of life, such as the erotic “The Little Coochi Snorcher That Could” (Jackie Marshall) that tells of a 16 year old girl’s first lesbian encounter. There was even an allegory of New Orleans as America’s Vagina in “They Beat The Girl Out of my Boy…Or So They Tried”, which was the most interesting if most tortured analogy I’ve run into recently.
This show raised funds for Speaking Out About Rape, and was part of the V-Day project. It’s worth seeing no matter what your position might be in the battle of the sexes. Alternately charming, disturbing and silly, we all have relations with vaginas, and shouldn’t keep them hidden. At least not among friends, anyway.
For more information on V-DAY, please visit www.vday.org
For more information on Speaking Out About Rape, please visit www.soar99.org
For more information on the Footlights Theater, please visit http://www.theparlimenthouse.com or http://www.Wanzie.com
