In 1996, Eva Ensler conducted interviews with 200 women about their views on sex, relationships and violence against women. From these interviews, Ensler wrote a play titled, “The Vagina Monologues”.
Since then it has seen a number of revisions and, due to popular demand, the production went on tour again, stopping off in Lincoln on November 13th, 2011. Described as “the ultimate girl’s night out,” it was no surprise to see that only five men were present in a nearly full Lincoln Performing Arts Centre.
Wendi Peters (Coronation Street), Louisa Lytton (The Bill, Eastenders) and Zaraah Abrahams (Waterloo Road) took to the stage, holding cue cards as they sat down in their seats. The show began with the ladies listing other names for the vagina, ranging from the clean to the extremely dirty. Many of the names received a laugh from the audience, though many were greeted with a cringe. It was a sign of things to come.
Something that went down well with the audience was the “clit fact.” The ladies would read out the fact, while prompting the audience to shout out a number of the words: “The clitoris is the only body part in males and females made for pleasure. It contains 8,000 nerve endings; that’s more than the fingertips, the lips, the tongue and more than twice as many as the penis.”
The chemistry between the three ladies was great, though it was Wendi Peters who particularly stood out. At times, her body language and facial expressions were very similar to that of Cilla Battersby-Brown (the character she played in Coronation Street), more so when she repeatedly screamed the C-word at the top of her voice during a monologue.
Another memorable monologue was one read by Louisa Lytton, in which she went through the different orgasms women experience, humorously acting out each one. The orgasms started out simple before leading into some more comical ones, though it was the conclusion of the monologue that had the audience in fits of laughter. Lytton went down on all fours and repeatedly thrusted in a doggy-style pose, when fireworks went off – signifying the climax.
“The Vagina Monologues” was not only a humorous play, but an educational production that gave the audience something to think about. The chemistry between Peters, Lytton and Abrahams was remarkable and helped make the show run smoothly and was thoroughly enjoyable from start to finish.