The Vagina Monologues

May 5, 2003
Playwright and activist Ensler's off-Broadway hit has been so successful it's spawned an internationally touring show and a nonprofit organization that supports work to stop violence against women and girls. Drawing from hundreds of interviews, some presented nearly verbatim, others as composites, and encompassing women of all races, ages, backgrounds, sexual preferences and nationalities, Ensler's one-and-a-half-hour, unabridged performance beckons listeners to reconnect with the "unnamed, untamed and unknown" down there. The sketch topics range from mundane yet funny (menstruation, gynecological exams, thong underwear and moaning styles) to truly poignant (rape, genital mutilation and their distressing statistics). Ensler tackles each with equal passion, in a voice as changeable as the show's tone. Narrated mostly in highly affected voices, like the memorable screaming, Southern accent in the piece called "My Angry Vagina," or the intense poetic articulation of "Reclaiming Cunt," Ensler's performance also portrays the reverence, awe and "deep worship of vagina" she felt after witnessing the birth of her granddaughter in a final segment dedicated to her daughter-in-law, entitled "I Was There In The Room."

October 1, 2000
Having been performed in 20 cities and on 200 campuses, the Obie Award-winning Vagina Monologues is here updated with testimonials and three new monoogs. Necessary Targets, which concerns violence against women during the conflict in Bosnia-Herzegovina, has already played with all-star casts on Broadway and in Sarajevo.

Copyright 2000 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

February 1, 2001
Ensler, famous, maybe notorious, for her witty, wildly popular meditation on female sexuality, "The Vagina Monologues "(1998), is as much journalist as playwright. Even her more traditional plays, such as this one, are based on extensive research. For "Necessary "Targets, she went to Bosnia to interview women who had survived the recent, brutal war. As in the "Vagina Monologues," her hard work pays off. The play is a sobering reminder of the barbarism committed in the name of national sovereignty. Its accounts of the Serbian use of terror, especially rape, as a weapon against civilians are especially chilling. But the play is more than another news account of the war. Ensler shapes her findings into a series of compelling, highly characterized portraits of the refugees and a pair of well-meaning, sometimes misguided American women who come to help them. Ensler's portrayals avoid the easy cliches of quick-hit news stories and convey human experience in all its painful complexity. (Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2001, American Library Association.)