The Vagina Monologues: A vivid performance

WASHINGTON, Jan. 23 (UPI) -- The "Vagina Monologues," as performed by Eve Ensler for her final engagement in the groundbreaking, eye-opening play is a perfectly choreographed one-man ... er, excuse me, ... one-woman show.

One must indeed congratulate Ensler for her ability to captivate her audience with a riveting monologue that runs a full hour and a half, during which time she addresses a single topic... the vagina, of course.

But then again, how could she possibly go wrong with such a topic? After all, this subject deeply touches and concerns half the world's population, and intrigues and mystifies the other half. Although I must admit, men were definitely a minority in the audience.

The "Monologues" are based on a series of interviews Ensler carried out with a diverse group of women around the world. It explores the humor, power, pain, wisdom, outrage, mystery and excitement that is hidden in a woman's anatomy.

A good part of the dialogue centered on "inside jokes," no pun intended, seriously. After all, how can any man really appreciate what a woman goes through during a visit to her gynecologist? Try as we may, we lack that experience.

No matter what sex you are, or prefer, the show is nonetheless intriguing, though I did find myself at times laughing along without being able to fully appreciate the depth of the narration. It is sort of like when you are with a group of friends and someone tells a joke that simply goes over you head, yet you laugh out of concern that others will think you are too thick to get the punch-line.

Ensler wrote and first performed the show in an off-Broadway theatre that housed 100 people about five years ago. Since then she has performed in Madison Square Garden to an audience of 18,000 and has taken her show on tour around the nation.

Ensler has successfully thrown in a mix of comedy and more serious subjects affecting women around the world, such as rape and female circumcision.

She questions the wisdom of some states, such as Texas, that she says ban certain instruments of sensual pleasure, yet allow guns. As Enser says, "no one was ever killed by a vibrator."

She has become the flag-bearer of "VDAY," a grassroots global movement she founded to stop violence aimed at women and girls. Ensler has worked closely with rape victims in Bosnia, and women who have been affected by the war in Afghanistan and suffered under the harsh conditions imposed on them by the Taliban.

The show's news release states that, "having seen the show, no one -- woman or man - will look at the world the same way again." After listening to Ensler's most private part "talk" at me for an entire evening, you can certainly say that again.