Eve Ensler is not quite certain that she wrote “The Vagina Monologues.”
This is not a copyright matter. It is a matter of how some theatrical works come to seem inevitable, like wonders of the natural world, which authors do not so much create as discover.
“I feel ‘The Vagina Monologues’ chose me. They’ve been channeling through me. I don’t think I’ve had that much to do with it,” said Ensler, who plays all the roles in a one-woman version of “Monologues,” which runs through Oct. 29 at the Apollo Theater, 2540 N. Lincoln Ave.
“I’ve had this great sense of serving it, of showing up for it and loving it, but not having much to do with it. It’s had a life that keeps going and going.”
“Monologues,” which Ensler wrote — or something like that — in 1996, employs a variety of voices on behalf of a female body part that was, she said, usually discussed only in embarrassed whispers or via coy euphemisms. In the play, women describe their vaginas whimsically: how they would dress it, how it would talk, what it smells like. The play has been performed continuously throughout the world since its 1997 off-Broadway debut.
Saying the word “vagina” out loud is not so scandalous today, perhaps, but three years ago, it was quite daring, Ensler recalled.
“It was really different then than now. Women weren’t all that happy to be hearing the word. People were scared, terrified — they thought it was bad. They begged me to change the title. I said, `No, I don’t want people tricked.'”
For too long, Ensler noted, women’s experiences were filtered through the eyes of male storytellers or through attitudes deemed “appropriate” by some unseen but powerful authority. To create her show, she began talking with women about their vaginas. Curiosity, not an angry political agenda, led her onward.
“I didn’t have any idea of what I was doing. The whole thing was accidental. I casually started saying to friends, `Tell me about your vagina.’ I didn’t think, Oh boy, what a catchy idea.”
The result is a controversial look at a portion of the female body that has been relentlessly politicized and sexualized throughout history. A woman’s vagina, Ensler said, is often exploited, but rarely explored.
During its long and celebrated run (“Monologues” won a 1997 Obie Award), well-known actors have dropped by to portray the characters in “Monologues,” including Susan Sarandon, Rita Moreno, Glenn Close, Whoopi Goldberg, Teri Hatcher, Phylicia Rashad, Juliana Marguiles and Brooke Shields.
Ensler chalked up its success to a crucial force: candor. “So few things in our culture reflect women’s true stories. So when they see it, it’s, `Oh, my God, it’s real, it’s how it is.'”
Yet men, too, appreciate the show, she added, because it provides them with insights into the women in their lives.
“At the beginning, the audiences were about 70-30” (more women than men), Ensler recalled. “Now, it’s about half and half. There are a lot of men in the audience. I’m really impressed by the men who come to `Vagina Monologues.’ It gives me a lot more faith in men. A lot of men say, `I cried through the whole thing. I’m bringing my daughters.'”
Critics who complain that the show is anti-male are missing the point: It is neither pro-male nor anti-male. It is not about men. It is about women. To some, that fact apparently is unfathomable; everything must be interpreted according to its relationship to men. Similarly, great plays about black culture often are misunderstood, critiqued as anti-white — as if the only standard that matters is a reference to the dominant culture.
Yet Ensler, 47, doesn’t mind the controversy. She is well accustomed to it, having written numerous plays on provocative topics for many years by the time she came up with “Monologues.” A fixture in the New York theater scene, she is the stepmother of Dylan McDermott, the lead actor in the ABC drama “The Practice,” although she is only nine years his senior. Ensler married McDermott’s father, Richard McDermott. The couple later divorced, but she remains close to Dylan, Ensler said.
“I’m the one who got him into acting school. He was unbelievably outrageous and funny, and he needed an outlet.”
In addition to touring with “Monologues,” Ensler is preparing to film the show for HBO. It will air next year. Her new play “Necessary Targets,” which deals with female Bosnian refugees, is scheduled to open on Broadway in February.
Her next project, “The Good Body,” is a play about “how women around the world transform their bodies in order to fit in with their culture.” Ensler traveled to 14 countries in four months to gather material.
The goal of “The Good Body,” she said, echoes her hope for “Monologues”: to give voice to the voiceless and to enable people to see the world from a perspective other than their own.
“The arts definitely change people more than anything else. It makes it possible to transform reality.”
Even people who don’t like “Monologues” and who dismiss it as an anti-male rant don’t bother her, Ensler said.
“Everybody’s invited to the table. There are no bad women or wrong women — just women who haven’t been freed yet.”
