News-Letter

Amanda Benedetto performs her monologue at Shriver Hall whle the rest of the all-female cast of the Vagina Monologues looks on. (Vadim Getchouchkin) [Click to enlarge]

So there I was, sitting in on a rehearsal, surrounded by the 21 cast-members of an upcoming production. Though they were all students at JHU, the 21 members of the cast had seemingly nothing in common. Some of them were angry about a grade on a Biology exam, while others complained about a philosophy paper. These people were from all different walks of life, from different backgrounds and races, from different locations and cultures, all united by one common bond: they had vaginas.

Ever since early womankind, the female form, as epitomized by that little patch of skin below her belt, has been preserved in all shapes and sizes, from the stone-carved Venus of Willendorf to the wistfully painted angels in a Rubens painting. But in the phallocracy that is western civilization, the often glorified woman has had very little part in determining her destiny.

And then came Eve Ensler. This Friday, as part of V-Day's global movement to end violence against women and girls, V-Day JHU is putting up The Vagina Monologues for its second year in Shriver Auditorium. This Obie award winning play, which enabled its playwright, Eve Ensler, to start her quest for a world safe for women and girls, has already been translated into 22 different languages since its initial publication in 1998. The Monologues are the synthesis of several years of interviewing more than 200 women, and reflect the humor, struggles and tragedy women all over the world feel, as personified by their vaginas.

And the JHU production is no exception. The stage is bare, yet those waiting to deliver their monologues seem to create the setting - women of all different walks of life coming together to create one vision, the vision of the vagina. Between alternating choruses into the nature of a vagina's smell, what two words one's vagina would say (when encountering me, hopefully: "too big!") and what would one's vagina wear. The subject matter varies from the humorous monologues, with such titles as "Coochie Snorcher," "Cunt," "Angry Vagina and Moan," to the more tragic, such as "Under the Burka."

Ensler started the Monologues as a professional performance, but over the last few years, she has given student groups the rights to do the play for free at almost 1000 college campuses, with all of the proceeds going to local charities that fight violence against women. Thus, both the Friday and Saturday performances of The Vagina Monologues will benefit The House of Ruth and TurnAround Inc., two local charities benefiting women who are victims of abuse.

The Vagina Monologues is supposed to make you applaud, emote and experience a powerful catharsis, regardless of your gender. And all of this is thanks to the directorial work of Loren Dunn (despite the first name, quite confirmed as being a male.). From this perspective, the show is a triumph of the female body, and if the guys aren't feeling some discomfort than there is a problem. With the power of poetic drama, the feminist agenda some misguided critics allude to misses the point. Instead, the play is a conundrum, clearly designed to create a dialogue in the gender war, while affirming the powerful female body in all its many glories. Round two at Hopkins maintains this spirit, and should be, to cite Elise Roecker's last performanc , an earth-shattering orgasm of a time.

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