Vagina Monologues features poignant performances (B )

By Joshua Kee     2/18/14 4:55pm

As a Vagina Monologues virgin, I was unsure of what to expect from the performance. I have to say, I was pleasantly surprised. While the rendition is not without its faults, this year’s collection of Rice students provides a simultaneously sincere and humorous take on the annual production. 

As a Vagina Monologues virgin, I was unsure of what to expect from the performance. I have to say, I was pleasantly surprised. While the rendition is not without its faults, this year’s collection of Rice students provides a simultaneously sincere and humorous take on the annual production. 

Monologues, created by Eve Ensler after she interviewed more than 200 women, dramatizes individuals’ personal experiences with their vaginas. While some of the monologues touch on comical topics like “What your vagina would wear,” the play doesn’t hesitate to confront darker topics concerning female sexuality, such as rape and abuse. The sensitivity of topics covered, in addition to the wide range of stories, makes the Vagina Monologues a difficult play to produce. I was impressed by the sheer courage that my fellow Rice students demonstrated; being a single actress, facing an entire audience and casually talking about intimate vaginal experiences can not be easy. 

---

---

The actresses braved these difficulties admirably, and successfully weaved together both humorous and serious accounts into an entertaining performance. A solemn account of the various tortures that Bosnian women suffered in rape camps can naturally follow a comic monologue concerning tampons and vaginal exams because each woman devotes herself to connecting to both the part and the audience. And this is largely due to the work of the directors, Maddie Camp, a Sid Rich senior, and Micaela Canales, a Will Rice College sophomore.

In general, the sincere moments were done well and feel genuine. Yena Han’s (a Duncan freshman) joyous discovery of her own womanhood and Sarya Alanis’s (A Lovett junior) harsh tale of rape can both enrapture the audience in the idea of innocence and its loss. The humor too was well executed. Samantha Love’s (a Lovett sophomore) rant about her “angry vagina” and Shane Alpert’s (a McMurtry senior) humorous account of a man’s intense passion for vaginas are both funny and engaging. 

That being said, the monologues fall flat on occasion. Some of this is due to poorly picked-up lines during the group scenes, which is a shame since the group scenes possess some of the most potential. At other times, the monologues and narration seemed rushed, no doubt due both to the sensitive nature of the topic and some understandable stage fright. However, considering that Monologues has yet to officially debut, audience members should anticipate a relatively smooth run-through during the official performances.

The costumes add to the director’s goal of distinction; pieces range from a sex worker’s outfit, to a simple blouse and jeans, to only underwear. Each costume helps to give flair to the character delivering the monologue and sets an overall tone for each episode. Though the monologues themselves provide the vast majority of the mood of each scene, the outfits certainly help in bringing the audience into each actress’s story, especially considering the almost complete absence of props.

Despite its flaws, this year’s production of the Vagina Monologues definitely succeeds in provoking in-depth thought about the current atmosphere concerning sexuality and will surely rouse audience members into reconsidering their “down-there”s.  

Vagina Monologues premieres Thursday, Feb. 20 at 8 p.m. at Sid Richardson College. 

---