REVIEW: The Vagina Monologues ‘embraces the power of the ensemble’

Theatre Ancaster’s production does full justice to the groundbreaking, influential work that empowers and celebrates women.

Theatre Ancaster is in the midst of a terrific production of The Vagina Monologues that all lovers of theatre, storytelling, and women should experience. Although the play centres on the (multifaceted) experience of being a girl or woman, there are moments of innocence, humour, strength, violence, shame, awareness, joy, and anguish that would resonate with individuals of any sex, gender, age, or sexuality. The performance I attended had an audience that was almost entirely comprised of women, but I think it would be shortsighted for any theatre lover to give this production a miss on the assumption that this is solely a play for women.

Indeed, in her remarks in the playbill, Theatre Ancaster director Lindsay Jones describes the nature of The Vagina Monologues’ influence in “revealing that no story exists in isolation. Hilarious, awkward, painful, and breathtaking, these monologues are deeply personal yet universally resonant — each one holding something recognizable within the collective human experience. These monologues may not be your story, but you’ll identify with each of them.”

The Vagina Monologues was written in 1996 by Eve Ensler, an American playwright, performer and activist. It was the culmination of about 200 interviews Ensler held with other women, beginning with her acquaintances and continuing on through a series of referrals. The views and anecdotes Ensler heard led her to believe that women’s empowerment was deeply tied to the body, specifically women’s sexuality and the personal and societal treatment of their vaginas. Thus, the play was created to “celebrate the vagina,” and women more generally. The Vagina Monologues premiered at HERE Arts Center in New York on Oct. 3, 1996, and its limited run was extended due to its popularity. It later had an off-Broadway run at the Westside Theatre.

Originally, Ensler performed all the monologues and then it was reimagined to be presented by a trio of women, often celebrities. Later versions saw each monologue performed by a separate individual. In 1998, the play’s intention also shifted to focus more specifically on eliminating violence against women and was combined with V-Day, a non-profit fundraising scheme to support organizations working to end violence against women (and gender-based violence) through the proceeds of The Vagina Monologues. At the peak of its success, The Vagina Monologues was performed in 2001 by a cast of 70 actors to a sold-out crowd at New York's Madison Square Garden as part of an event that raised $1 million. Since its inception 30 years ago, The Vagina Monologues has been staged internationally countless times, including on campuses across North America. In a 2018 article, The New York Times argued that, “No recent hour of theater has had a greater impact worldwide.”

The play explores the extremely personal yet ironically shared experience of having a vagina, starting with the astounding assortment of names by which it is known. Some names are whimsically bizarre, like “coochie-snorcher.” Other names predictably avoid the clinical in favour of making the vagina more palatable and “polite.” Still others are in-your-face, notably the term “cunt,” which earns its own, very funny monologue of defiant celebration. The monologues have themes, including the degree of sexual satisfaction and comfort women have achieved (or lack) with their own bodies, body image, orgasm, rape, social pressures, genital mutilation, childbearing, menstruation, sex work, and war crimes through the participation of women of various ages, racialized identities, sexualities, and gender identities.

The Theatre Ancaster set is simple, intimate and inviting, a collection of different types of chairs on several tiers. There are no two alike. Some seats are cushiony, some are very feminine, and some have a vintage feel, all in a pink and tan colour palette that is very clever and a fun nod to the subject matter. While some are performing, others are seated as a second, supportive audience onstage. 

Throughout the performance, there can be heard titters of embarrassment, giggles of recognition, gasps of surprise and moments of utter pin-drop silence as the storytellers take the audience through the wholesome, the ridiculous, the funny, the ecstatic, and the harrowing realities women and their vaginas experience across the globe and across a single lifetime. “What Would Your Vagina Wear?” and “What Would It Say?” are full of funny and imaginative responses (and potentially exciting conversation starters for the car ride home). “My Vagina Was My Village” was as shattering as when I first read it; it’s a breath-taking monologue and the Ancaster cast did it full justice.

I read the book version of The Vagina Monologues about 25 years ago, and there has been some pointed criticism of Ensler’s original text and some resulting revisions and evolution of the text since its first draft and staging. For instance, the original monologues omitted trans women, and in 2004, an all-transgender performance of The Vagina Monologues was staged for the first time. I was happy to see that Theatre Ancaster’s production featured a very moving monologue and inclusion of trans individuals’ experience, performed by cast member Zoe Ni Cheallaigh.

I was mostly impressed to see the range of women participating in the cast, particularly the diversity of ages, body types, and sexualities. The more senior women of the cast, including Charmaine Shaw, contribute a wonderful energy, physicality and humour to the production. I was a little disappointed in terms of the representation of racialized women and women with (visible) disabilities. However, included in the show program is a thoughtful acknowledgement that “our cast and crew bring a range of identities and experiences — balancing families, careers, injuries, and milestones. Yet they cannot represent the full spectrum of womanhood or gender-diverse lives in 2025 …” I respect the effort given by Theatre Ancaster to affirm the variety of ways in which to be a “woman.”

Theatre Ancaster’s production involves a cast of 18 women who take turns to individually, collectively and collaboratively present about a dozen and a half monologues over two acts. Director Jones says that this production very consciously, “embraces the power of the ensemble.” This it does very successfully, with a cast that is both individually strong and manages to achieve a sum even greater than its parts at key points of the play.

“Rather than presenting each piece in a solitary voice, our company of performers allow the stories to overlap, intersect, and exist in community,” Jones says, in the “hope that you’ll see and hear yourself, and the people you love, in these pieces.” The cast works beautifully together, moving around the stage smoothly and coordinating their voices impeccably to bring the audience story after engaging story. Well done.

Audience warning from Theatre Ancaster: “This production is intended for mature audiences only. It contains strong language and candid descriptions of genitalia, bodily functions, sexuality, sex, sexual abuse, and sexual assault.”

Theatre Ancaster’s next production is Spamalot, running Nov. 14, 15, 21, 22, 27, 28 & 29 at 7:30 p.m. as well as Nov. 16, 23 & 30 at 2 p.m.

NEED TO KNOW

The Vagina Monologues
Continues Sept. 19 & 20, 7:30 p.m. and Sept. 21, 2 p.m.
Theatre Ancaster
Ancaster Memorial Arts Centre
357 Wilson St. E., Ancaster
Box office: 905-304-3232
More information: theatreancaster.com