The act of selling a vibrator in the state of Ohio is punishable by one year of hard labor.
This fun fact is just one of many revealed Tuesday night at Thurber Theatre at the Drake Performance and Event Center in Eve Ensler’s “The Vagina Monologues.”
“The Vagina Monologues” has been a smash hit on Broadway and is sweeping the nation with performances that have raised millions of dollars for local, national and international groups that work to stop violence against women.
Based on Ensler’s best-selling book of the same name, “The Vagina Monologues” used three talented performers who took the sell-out crowd on a roller coaster ride of laughs and emotions. Starla Benford, Sherri Parker Lee and local guest performer Sally Fingerett sat atop the stage dressed in red and dramatically told the audience everything they needed to know about vaginas.
“These two women (Benford and Parker Lee) have been doing this for months, and they’re absolutely fabulous,” said Fingerett, a singer-songwriter and member of the folk group Four Bitchin’ Babes. “I was graced with two wonderful playmates, and I pulled my emotion from their performances.”
The three performers portrayed the intimate confessions of women from all walks of life, including all ages, races, shapes and sizes. Each monologue revealed the testimony of a woman’s thoughts and feelings as to what her vagina meant to her.
As the performance rolled on, the women read off actual results to survey questions such as: “If your vagina could talk, what would it say?” “What name do you call your vagina?” and “What would your vagina wear if it could dress itself?”
The crowd twisted and turned in hysterical laughter as each actress projected her voice, emphasizing words and using body language to give each monologue a life of its own.
“The Vagina Monologues” was not, however, all fun and games. In a break from the laughter, Benford, Fingerett and Parker Lee addressed issues of rape and sexual abuse with confessions from women who had been subjected to such mistreatment. Silence filled the theatre with the focus on Parker Lee as she portrayed the monologue of one Bosnian woman who was brutually tortured by numerous soldiers.
Thus the remarkable talent of the performers shined through as they, along with the awestruck crowd, turned tears of sadness into tears of sheer amusement when Fingerett graphically discussed the logic behind tampons and gynecological exams.
“I was in awe of Sherri’s bit as was the audience,” Fingerett said. “I collected myself and fed off the audience’s emotion. In any performance there is pressure to perform. That’s why I do what I do.”
“The Vagina Monologues” left men in attendance, many who were accompanying their wives or girlfriends, feeling as though they knew slightly more about women. With all the talk of vaginas and orgasms, men with confident faces left Thurber Theatre with only one thought in mind.
This, however, is not why “The Vagina Monologues” is so effective. The performance addresses women’s insecurities with their own sexual desires, needs and identities, leaving women with the confidence to relate with both body and mind.
In the aftermath of the performance, one middle-aged woman, overheard in conversation with her peers, said the show was “cute.” Forget “cute,” “The Vagina Monologues” was raw and captivating in its attempt to expose the erotic hunger and self-expression that each woman’s “coochie-snorcher” has to offer.
“The Vagina Monologues” is showing at 8 p.m. today and tomorrow, 3 p.m. and 8 p.m. Saturday and 3 p.m. and 7 p.m. Sunday.
