V
Vagina Monologues, The
Identification Controversial Off-Off-Broadway
play
Author Eve Ensler (1953- )
Date First produced in 1996
Place Here Arts Center, New York City
Although initially outrageous, the continuing perfor-
mances of this play not only served to reconnect women with
their bodies but also generated a powerful social movement
condemning violence against women.
During a conversation with a feminist friend in 1994,
playwright Eve Ensler was shocked to realize that
the woman seemed alienated from her own body.
Ensler, who had been raped and abused in child-
hood, recognized that she too had become emotion-
ally detached and began to talk with other women
about their attitudes toward their
bodies. As she interviewed more
than two hundred women of all ages
and backgrounds, she discovered
that many shared her disconnec-
tion. She basedThe Vagina Mono-
logueson their stories.
Mindful of a tradition of silence
about women’s bodies and of wide-
spread violence against them,
Ensler argued that women needed
to tell their intimate stories and re-
claim their own words. Because “va-
gina,” a medical term, generated
controversy, at first she had diffi-
culty placing advertisements for her
play. In her introduction to the
book version, published in 1998,
she explained: “I say it [vagina] be-
cause I’m not supposed to say it....I
say it because I believe that what we
don’t say we don’t see, acknowl-
edge, or remember.”
Originally, the play consisted of
several monologues by different voices (all played by
Ensler), but soon other actors were involved. Each
performance was different, tailored to the specific
audience. Any awkwardness was allayed by her imp-
ish humor, and audiences, including men, generally
responded with enthusiasm.
After seeing aNewsweekphotograph of Bosnian
girls rescued from a Serbian rape camp, Ensler trav-
eled to Croatia to interview Bosnian refugees. Her
outrage at rape as a deliberate tactic of war resulted in
the powerful monologue of a Bosnian survivor. Other
characters included an elderly Jewish woman recall-
ing a humiliating date, a six-year-old girl, a corporate
lawyer turned lesbian dominatrix, and Ensler’s own
poetic recollection of her granddaughter’s birth.
Later monologues featured an irate woman com-
plaining about a gynecological examination and an
Afghan woman living under Taliban rule.Actors assemble for a performance ofThe Vagina Monologuesin 1999 at London’s
Old Vic theater, including Melanie Griffith (seated front), Cate Blanchett (second from
left), and Gillian Anderson (far right).(©Neville Elder/Corbis Sygma)