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The Sunday Times (London): "The Vagina Monologues New Ambassadors"


05/20/2001

By John Peter

Eve Ensler's one-woman show returns as glorious as before: warm, open, exciting, enchantingly funny, hilariously enchanting - and I choose my words carefully. Ensler's monologues are based on interviews with women of
different ages and nationalities; they are free and uninhibited, but this is not, repeat not, a salacious show. It has the kind of erotic intelligence that goes with a mature, open emotional life. It shows you how dirty the
phrase "adult entertainment" really is. It is not preachy, it never condescends, it is not sanctimonious. It reminds you that "moral" can, in the wrong hands, be a dirty word. It is about being a sexual being who can afford to be demanding and proud. When Ensler talks about gang-raped Bosnian women, she is talking about an assault on their pride. Sex is both your identity and your happiness, and Ensler celebrates it like a laughing priestess.