REVIEW: Vagina Monologues

On Monday I nervously went and was witness to the Women in Theatre showcase An Evening of Women’s Bits.

The production was hosted by Frankie Fry, Chloe Green and Rhiannon Jones who took turns in presenting the 1 hour and 15 minute performance and all had a speaking role entitled ‘Letters to my future daughter’. The monologues were based on Eve Ensler’s Vagina Monologues (funnily enough) who created them by interviewing women of various ages, sexuality and ethnic backgrounds across the planet. The event was part of Women’s Day which has been turned into a entire week of events by Southampton University to celebrate the baby makers of our world.

To be perfectly honest I went in pretty skeptical; I only decided to go because my beautiful housemate was performing. After living with her for over a year and a half without seeing her act but hearing so many stories about her wild days in national youth theatre I guess I kinda had to. Just before I went into the show I described my opinion on the whole VAGINA MONOLOGUE THING as ‘a bit like a blokes’; I figured I would be quite grossed out and the experience would be something to endure rather than enjoy. All in all I was pleasantly surprised, all proceeds went to Women’s Aid rather than FemSoc and the acting was fairly top notch despite pretty much no props and most of the tech being a single spotlight.  I sat between male friends (shock horror yes MEN) so I was lucky enough to not only experience it for myself but also observe their reactions. One them had seen a part of the show earlier and just before lights up he warned me that it could be a bit of an eyeopener as the play has become infamous for its no shame approach. I have to say that as the first speakers started throwing statements at the crowd about the ‘brown on her panties’ I was a little shocked…. but by the time I got to hear about the the pulsating mutilated and bleeding post birth stuff I had become nice and numb to it and so had my lovely boys. We really loved a lot of it though the singer was particularly fantastic, the age range of actors was diverse yet amazingly appropriate for a student performance and the guys I sat next to all left with the same respect I felt for everyone involved.

Parts of it were hilarious because they were actually supposed to be, parts of it were quite touching and yeah some bits just grossed me out – but it was entertaining and it certainly made me consider my Vagina et al. After hearing over an hour of Vagina stuff I have to say it’s made me think: Do I like my Vagina? Should I let the garden grow? Am I currently festering on some deep rooted fear of having a cheeky ‘flood‘ in Jesters? Should I say cunt in an airport? I thought it was interesting. Someone once said to me ‘feminism is only believing men and women should be equal’ ‘which all jokes aside I do. On the flip-side however, I don’t think anyone’s opinion should be rammed down another’s throat but I didn’t feel like this performance fell into that trap. Everybody that was involved in tonight was a volunteer, it went to a good cause and it was certainly entertaining.