'Vagina Monologues' returns to support women against violence

Reprising last year’s production, Eve Ensler’s hit play The Vagina Monologues will be performed at 8 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 13, in the Olin Arts Center Concert Hall, 75 Russell St. The public is invited and donations will be gratefully accepted. The proceeds from the show will support a local women’s organization. With a cast of 21 students, the production is directed by Ariana Margolis, a senior at Bates and a native of Cornwall, Vt.

Eve Ensler is an award-winning playwright, poet, activist and screenwriter. For The Vagina Monologues, she asked a diverse group of women about their thoughts and feelings regarding this part of their bodies. The play Ensler created from these interviews relates women’s stories in terms that are personal yet universal, comic and poignant, brazen and mysterious.

Since its Obie-winning premiere, in 1996, it has been performed to worldwide acclaim. Productions have featured such top actors as Glenn Close, Cate Blanchett, Winona Ryder, Susan Sarandon, Marisa Tomei, Rosie Perez, Lily Tomlin, Kate Winslett, Melanie Griffith and Calista Flockhart.

“The play is about acceptance of one’s self, finding yourself via comfort with your body and understanding of the power that lies within the things we don’t talk about,” says Margolis. For performers, she adds, “the explicitness is seductive — a lot of women want to be a part of this show and of the cause, the fight against violence against women.”